No Man's Land
by Doppleganger Tango
Summary: After Kurt quits the company, everything is supposed to go back to normal. Only, ex-hitmen have enemies and it turns out that no one is safe just yet. Sequel to Shoot to Kill.
1. Chapter 1, Kurt's POV

**No Man's Land**

"Are you going to go visit your father?" Kurt Hummel glanced down at the man straddling his thighs, the one pressing kisses down Kurt's hip. They'd been in bed all day, really for the past three days, since they had gotten to Lima. Despite a few trips to the grocery, they had stayed in Kurt's small apartment and simply showered each other in affection. Affection which Kurt had expected to have returned to him today, but now he wasn't so sure.

"Did you really just mention my dad when you're ten seconds from putting your mouth on my dick? Is that really what just happened?" Blaine Anderson laughed, still peppering kisses against Kurt's hip, shaking his head as he did so.

"I've been thinking about it since you mentioned it at dinner yesterday. I mean, it's important to you. Plus he's probably worried, don't you think? You wanted to wait until you were a little more healed up."

Kurt sighed, turning his head against the pillow. His lack of response must have caught Blaine's undivided attention because he smoothed himself against Kurt's chest, tucking his chin against Kurt's collarbone and smiled sleepily. It was only nine in the morning, both of them only having been awake for a few minutes before this particular excursion had started.

"I don't even know what I'm going to say to my family. That wasn't the longest I had disappeared but I didn't contact anyone. And I come back with a bullet wound and I'm not really sure how I'm going to talk my way out of that one." Blaine nodded, causing his chin to bump against Kurt's collarbone, and then turned his head to the side. The few days gave Kurt's ribs time to heal and his arm no longer burned whenever he moved it.

"So let's think up a story. First as to why you've been gone and then about your injury."

Kurt bit his lip, wanting to say that he didn't want to have to lie to his family anymore, but he knew that he had to. Let this be the last lie that he told, let this be the one that ends the past few years where all he did was lie.

"My cover story for all intents and purposes was that I worked at a design school here in Ohio, about twenty miles away. Paid intern, low enough on the totem pole that I had no say in what I was told to do, but high enough that I wasn't ignored. I guess I can just say that I was sent to New York for a show, last minute. It's a story I've told before."

Blaine nodded once again, his hair tickling Kurt's chest, and then rolled his head to look back at him again.

"There are a lot of areas to get injured at during fashion shows, right? I don't know from experience, but I've seen movies." Kurt laughed because well, it was such a Blaine thing to say, and nodded. Although the fashion design school was a coverup, he had done a lot of research. And fashion shows was kind of what got him through highschool, so that helped in his favor.

"Maybe I can just tell my dad I was stabbed with an umbrella at a sale or something." Blaine laughed, the movement causing his stomach to brush against Kurt's nether regions, but since the topic of discussion was less than amorous, there was no immediate reaction.

"I'm sure that no matter what you tell them, everything will work out. And then you can get back into some normal semblence of life and everything will be fine. You're out and everything is over and done with. You can go back to how your life was before."

Kurt was sure that he wasn't imagining the tone that came with that last sentence, the tone that clearly said that Blaine wasn't saying everything that he was thinking. And it was probably the same thing that Kurt was thinking. They were enjoying their time together, separated from the world as they were, but they'd have to get back to reality soon. Kurt would have to confront his family and Blaine would have to go back to New York and... neither of them knew what was coming next.

All Kurt really knew was that he didn't want to lose Blaine just yet, not without a fight at least, so before he even had time to figure out what this next step would mean, his mouth was moving and words were coming out.

"I'd like it if you came with me when I go visit my dad." Blaine froze, slowly angling the upper half of his torso up so that he could lean on his palms, pressed down on either side of Kurt's shoulders.

"You want me to... meet your family?" Kurt nodded, averting his eyes and feeling a sense of embarrassment he hadn't felt in... well, a long time. Being a hitman may have given him a lot more confidence, but he tended to revert to his old ways quite often.

"Well, only if you want to." Kurt didn't want to think about how important this man that he'd only known over a week was to him. He didn't want to even bother comprehending that little fact because that would create so many problems. He loved him, sure, but he wasn't in love with him. Yet.

"I do want to. I'd like that a lot."

Kurt released the breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding and smiled, just enough that he didn't seem like he had been having an internal breakdown while waiting for a response.

"Good."

Later that afternoon, because the mood had been ruined after talk of Kurt's family, they dressed and prepared for the drive to the Hummel household. As Kurt climbed into the driver seat, since he knew where he was going, he remembered that his own car was parked at the runway behind the company. He'd have to have Blaine ride with him to go pick it up, but later. Right now, he just wanted to get to the house and hope that his dad would refrain from blowing up on him while he had company.

"Anything I need to know about your family?"

Kurt glanced at Blaine as they left the apartment complex, driving almost on autopilot with how often he had made this trip before. It was there that he realized that they didn't know much about one another, did they? Well, Kurt knew a lot about Blaine, but not in the sense of knowing him as a person. Studying his portfolio when preparing to kill him just wasn't the same as playing 20 Questions or learning things over dinner.

"Well, let's see. My dad's name is Burt and... well, I love him.. He's very accepting of me and he's always been there for me. It's been hardest to lie to him because we always told each other everything. I introduced him to his wife, my step-mom, Carole. She is so kind and selfless and... she's been a great mom to me. And then there is my step-brother, Finn. He's... well, he's grown a lot. In high school, he was a little awkward about the gay thing. But he grew out of it and we're fine now. Honestly, we're great now. We're close and we talk about a lot. Except relationships because even though we aren't in high school anymore, he still recycles through girls at a shocking speed."

Blaine nodded, as if committing this all to memory. Really, Kurt could say so much about his family, but he didn't want to unload everything on Blaine (especially not the likes of his infatuation with his brother, before they were related). And, they were pulling onto the street, so that meant that they'd have to quit the conversation. But there was one last thing Kurt would have to get covered before they parked.

"My dad might think... my dad is probably going to ask how long we've been together. And I have a feeling telling him "a week" will most likely not end well, so we need to figure that out before we go in there." Blaine nodded, fisting and unfisting his hands on his knees.

"Well, uh... when was the last time you went to New York? That your dad knows about, that is."

Kurt thought about it, remembering how he usually doesn't tell his dad where the _school_ was sending him. The last time he mentioned it was about three and a half months ago. When Kurt told Blaine this, Blaine nodded and bit his lip while he thought about it.

"We can say that we met when you came to New York, clicked and decided to keep in touch. Things like that happen, right?" Blaine said it half jokingly but Kurt didn't even respond because honestly? He wasn't sure how relationships worked for normal people. He hadn't had an actual relationship in way too long. Really, since he started the damn career.

"Well here we are. Good luck to us both." Kurt turned off the car, almost not wanting to get out of the car, but he could see the blinds moving in the window next to the door. Someone saw a small red car parked in the driveway, which gave them only a few minutes before whoever it was stepped out of the house.

Kurt squeezed Blaine's hand quickly, shooting him what he hoped was an encouraging smile, befure undoing his seatbelt and stepping out of the car. Blaine followed suit, almost tripping when he stepped out. They walked up the driveway beside one another, their hands brushing as they did so.

On the porch, before Kurt could even raise his hand to knock, the door flew open to reveal Finn Hudson. Finn didn't even glance at the other person on the porch, simply bent down and wrapped his arms around Kurt's shoulders, squeezing him tightly. The hug pressed against the bullet wound, but thankfully the ribs were spared. He'd forgotten how much of a hugger Finn (and his father, but that would be later) was.

"Okay, okay, missed you too Finn. Could you let go of me please?" Finn let go, stepped back and hollared into the house that Kurt was there, before turning back and glancing over Kurt's head to the other person. Blaine shifted a little uncertainly before stepping up, offering his hand to Kurt's brother.

"Hi, you must be Finn. I've heard a lot about you. I'm Blaine Anderson." Finn stared at the hand, glancing from the owner of said hand to Kurt a few times, before offering his own. It was obvious in the way Blaine's fingers whitened and the face he was making the Finn was squeezing his hand a lot harder than necessary.

"Finn, honestly. Is mom and dad home?" Finn released Blaine hand, who subtly flexed his fingers at his side, before turning into the house.

"Just dad. Mom is at work but will be home for dinner. You'll be here then right? You're not running off again?" Finn looked confused, which was almost a default setting for him, but Kurt smiled reassuringly.

"No Finn, I'm not running off again."

They moved into the house, shutting the door behind them, and headed towards the living room. Blaine stayed beside Kurt, looking around the house as they passed by a couple of picture frames. Childhood pictures and then a few family pictures littered the walls and a few small tables. Kurt would ordinarily fuss over Blaine seeing those pictures, but he had more important things on his mind. Like the look that his dad was sporting, standing next to his recliner.

It was definitely not a happy look, not a look of welcoming. It was the look of-

"Finn, I'd like a moment with your brother alone please." Finn took one hard look at their dad's face, whispered 'good luck' and took off towards the stairs. Blaine made a sound in the back of his throat and started to head back to the front door but Kurt grabbed his shirt sleeve and pulled him back beside him.

"Before you turn me into a pinata dad, I want you to meet someone. Blaine Anderson, this is my dad, Burt Hummel. Dad, this is Blaine, my..." Kurt trailed off because okay, he wasn't really sure if 'boyfriend' was a title they were using for their relationship, but Blaine filled in the blank for him.

"Boyfriend. It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Hummel, I've heard so much about you." His dad shook his hand, eyeing him cautiously for a moment before glancing back to Kurt.

"Haven't heard anything about you. Blaine, why don't you have a seat in here while I have a talk with my son." Blaine nodded quickly, shooting a look to Kurt before sitting on the couch stiffly.

Kurt inwardly rolled his eyes because he knew that there would probably be a _if you hurt my son_ talk sometime in the next ten minutes, but followed his dad to the dining room.

"You want to tell me what's going on here Kurt? You disappear for a few days and then you come back with some boy-" Kurt glanced over his shoulder to where the living room was but he couldn't see Blaine, although he was pretty sure that Blaine could still hear them.

"He's not just some boy, dad. I really care about him. And yes, I know I shouldn't have disappeared like that but I had a last minute fashion show event in New York so I had to fly up there, literally last minute. I didn't have time to grab my charger and my phone died while I was up there. I'm sorry dad, really. And it won't happen again." Mostly because he wouldn't have to go to other states for jobs like that anymore, but Kurt kept that bit to himself.

His dad sighed, passing his hand over his face and straightening his cap. Kurt knew that his dad trusted him (hence why it was always so hard to lie to him) and that their family was so close (which would explain why that even though Kurt and Finn had their own apartments, they were always there), so he knew that him not being around hurt his dad. He would work extra hard to make sure it didn't come to that again.

"Tell me about this bo- Blaine." Kurt smiled, glancing over his shoulder again as he did so.

"His name is Blaine, we met in New York a few months ago. You remember, when I had to go there for that huge fabric design seminar? Well we met and had a lot in common so we talked for a while. I didn't... neither of us expected anything to come of it or for us to see each other again but we met up in New York on accident this trip and since he was heading down to see his family, I thought it would be nice to bring him along."

His dad nodded, glancing into the living room much like his son had been doing, before shrugging.

"I'll reserve judgement until I get to know him. Is he staying for dinner?" Kurt wanted to say no, because that would probably be a disaster, but he nodded. Saying no to his dad has never been easy.

"Most likely. His family lives in Westerville, a few hours away, so he'll leave soon to visit them."

Once the Spanish Inquisition was over, Kurt went back into the living room and sat next to Blaine. His dad hadn't followed him and Kurt knew his duty, but he wanted to give Blaine some reassurance before feeding him to the dogs.

"He's going to come across strong, but he means the best. But be careful, he can smell fear." Blaine laughed, the sound a little rushed, and nodded. It felt like high school, with Kurt introducing his first boyfriend to his family. Only it wasn't high school, but Kurt was still introducing his first real boyfriend to his family. As Blaine stood up, Kurt moved with him and cupped his cheek, pressing their lips together quickly.

"For luck." Blaine smiled, squeezing Kurt's wrist lightly before heading into the dining room.

As Kurt sat down, listening to the low tones of his dad's voice addressing Blaine, he felt himself relax. He would still probably have to give them the lie they'd made up about his arm, and whenever his dad did hug him, he'd have to pass off the wince because of his ribs as nothing. But beyond that, everything was going to be okay. They would be just fine.

Later, after dinner, Kurt pressed his fist against his mouth to hide the smile while waiting for Carole to stop hugging Blaine. They were heading out, since it was getting late, but Kurt promised to return in the morning for family breakfast. When Carole finally released him, Blaine stumbled down the porch steps to where Kurt was standing.

"Come back anytime Blaine, it was a pleasure to have you." Blaine nodded, tossing a wave over his shoulder as he slid into the passenger seat and Kurt slid into the driver seat.

"So where to now?" Kurt glanced over at Blaine and smiled lightly.

"Well, I need to go to the company to get my car. And then I guess back to the apartment?" Blaine nodded, glancing out of the window and hunching his shoulders just a bit. Kurt wasn't sure what the reason was, but he could almost feel that Blaine was thinking about something less than pleasant.

They drove in silence, Kurt with one hand pressed over Blaine's and the other steering. He could probably make this drive with his eyes closed, as often as he had made it before. And just as he suspected, they were at the company quickly.

The guard at the gate was the same one that used to flirt with Kurt, but instead of flirting, he tossed him a suspicious glare.

"What are you doing here Hummel?" Kurt squeezed Blaine's hand and glanced up at the guard.

"My car is parked at the air strip." The guard glanced into the passenger seat at Blaine, his eyes hardening, and then straightened up.

"Well get in and then get out." He turned away from the car, effectively ending the conversation. Kurt shook his head and drove on, heading down the back road to the air strip. Hopefully his car would still be there... and in one piece.

"What was that about?" Blaine was looking over his shoulder at the guard house and Kurt laughed a little under his breath.

"He was always a bit flirty with me. I guess he's just mad that I'm off the market, as it were." Blaine smiled, turning his hand over to squeeze Kurt's fingers with his own.

When they pulled into the air strip, Kurt was surprised to see his car was still there, and not even touched by the looks of it. He got out of Blaine's car and moved to his own, inspecting it and checking under it. He had an image of turning the key and blowing up, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong.

"Okay, so. Want to follow me out of here and back to the apartment?" Blaine was leaning against the driver side of his own car and at that, he glanced away from Kurt.

"I actually... I want to go to Westerville. Not tonight, because it's late and dark and I've never made the drive from here to there before, but tomorrow. I just... I wanted to tell you tonight."

Kurt nodded, moving forward to stand infront of Blaine. To be honest, he expected it. He was also aware of why Blaine was acting so stiff. He had thought, if only for a day or so, that his parents had wanted him dead. It was difficult to come back from that. Instead of dwelling on it though, Kurt wrapped his hands around Blaine's waist and smiling when Blaine's arms automatically came around his shoulders.

"That's tomorrow. Let's go back to the apartment. You can help me finish unpacking, so that maybe I can finally have my family over to see the apartment, and then we can go to sleep." They'd worry about tomorrow later.

Blaine nodded and leaned forward, connecting his lips with Kurt's and sighed into the kiss. Yes, Kurt thought, they'd worry about tomorrow some other time.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **My darlings! I am back! Here is the not-so-long-awaited sequel to _Shoot to Kill_. While this chapter is fluffy, there will be a bit more action this time around. No worries though, my smut-minded readers, for there will be scenes of sexual nature that will be prefaced in the author note's at the top of the page just as before.

If you're following me on tumblr, you've already seen half of this chapter and a little snippet from the next. Stay tuned for more jewels of the such!

Also, these chapters are going to alternate POV. While this one centers around Kurt, the next shall be more around Blaine.

As always my darling, darling readers, thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of our new story.


	2. Chapter 2, Blaine's POV

**No Man's Land**

Blaine rolled over onto his back, throwing his arm over his face and groaning into the crook of his elbow. He did not want to get up. Getting up meant acknowledging the fact that he had to go to work again. He'd been working double shifts at the bar some nights to make up to his boss for him leaving. Plus he'd been doing extra work at the local schools where he helped in the music classes. Sometimes it helped to know people in this city.

He'd only been back for three weeks, but three weeks was long enough for him to have fallen into a bit of a funk. He was back to work and doing things that he did before he met Kurt but it felt like he was lagging behind. He lived an exciting life for a week (because yea, having a hit out on you was kind of exciting) and now he was washing glasses and pouring drinks and teaching fourteen year olds how to read music notes. He was in New York trying to pretend like he didn't know what he knew and Kurt was in Ohio trying to get his life back on track.

"Wow, you're still in bed? Get up, lazy ass, it's past two in the afternoon." Blaine moved the arm off of his eyes to glare at Wes, who he hadn't even heard sneak into his bedroom. He was eating nuts out of a ziplock bag, rolling his eyes and tiptoeing through Blaine's room as if it was a minefield. Which it kind of was, since he hadn't done much cleaning since he had gotten back.

"I didn't get home until six and I didn't go to sleep until eight, so fuck you." Wes laughed, backtracking out of the room.

"Well make yourself presentable, your highness, you have a guest. He said he's from out of town or I would have told him to come back later." Blaine nodded, wondering for a moment who it could be as he crawled out of bed, struggling to untangle his sheets from around his ankles before he face planted. Once he was free, he glanced around for clothes. Settling on the jeans and tshirt from last night, he dressed.

There was nothing to be done with his hair without proper forewarning, so he simply ran his fingers through it a few times before stepping into the living room.

A man sat on the couch, wearing an old brown jacket and smoothing his hand over the back of his head, probably trying to cover up that bald spot. When the floorboard just outside of Blaine's room groaned, the man stood up and faced him, grinning as he did.

"Ah, you must be Blaine. I'm Jackson Wainright and I'm a liason with Prothero University out of state. We recently recieved word that you were applying back to colleges to try to get a degree. Have you given any thought to what you'd be majoring in?" Blaine rubbed the back of his neck and moved around the couch to sit in the old wooden chair across from it.

"Not really, I didn't last long at my last university. I like music, that is my main focus right now, but in the long run? I'm good with numbers and I'm good with people." The man nodded and moved to sit back down on the couch.

"Well, while our music department is not very extensive, we do have very good teachers and room for expansion. However, we have really good accounting and communications departments, ones that are always looking for new prospects. Let me get you some information."

While he started to rifle through the briefcase, Blaine couldn't help but wonder why this man seemed familiar. He knew that he'd never heard the name before (Jackson Wainright was pretty uncommon) but something about him felt familiar. He also had only recently started applying to colleges and wasn't really sure how word would have gotten out so quickly, now why someone would stop personally at his door to promote their school.

"And uh, where is Prothero University?" The man looked up, leafing through a stack of papers before passing them over with a smile.

"Just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. It's a small school, sort of a 'blink and you'll miss it' type of thing. Very close knit. I have to get to my next appointment, but I am excited to hear back from you. My number and email address is in the file, in case you have any questions. Prothero looks forward to having you."

Before Blaine could even offer his hand, could even thank the man for coming out this way or even THINK about anything of the sort, the man had gathered his stuff and stood, leaving the room in a rush.

It was, all in all, one of the strangest encounters he had had in a while. While he thumbed through the packet, looking at the pictures and the prices- small but accessible campus and not an inconvienent price- he heard one of the back bedrooms open and shut. Invisible Chuck, as Wes and Blaine had taken to calling their roommate since the guy had taken on a third job and was very rarely ever in the apartment, wasn't home so it had to be Wes.

A glance up confirmed that it was Wes, pulling on his chef's uniform while simultaneously trying to brush down his hair. He opened his mouth, going to explain what the visitor had been, but Wes cut him off.

"Good, you're alone. I haven't wanted to say anything since you came back, but you're starting to become a bit of a health hazard and I'm sick of it. I don't know what happened when you went on that little lover's escape, if that's what it even was."

"Wes..." It was said only half threateningly because Blaine was atleast half sure that Wes wouldn't press the issue if he told him to stop. And to give him credit, Wes held his hands up in surrender.

"Fine. Whatever, why should I care? It's not like we've been best friends since highschool and I care about you. No, not at all. Why should I care that you disappeared for a week, or that your supposed boyfriend who had supposedly just moved here, supposedly just moved back to Ohio and hey, didn't you say he was from Oklahoma, and by the way, his name isn't really _Henry_ as he said it was, but _Kurt_? No, well, I don't care. As long as you and Chuck keep paying your half of the rent, I won't give two shits what you do, right? Right."

And in a diva fit that Blaine hadn't seen since the practice room at Dalton Academy, Wes gathered his jacket and keys, slamming the door behind him. Part of Blaine was worried because that was definitely the worse display of poor grammar that Wes had ever shown, a run on sentence that long, but the other part of him couldn't fight back a smile. Wes had known him for so long and had seen how he had been after the whole Matthew fiasco and tended to go above and beyond to protect him. Blaine was easily hurt, since he seemed to throw himself so blindly into things sometimes, and Wes had always been the one to pull him back before he got in over his head.

Wes had tried so often to get Blaine to end things with Matthew when that had been going on, had threatened and begged and pleaded and bribed and finally gave up because Blaine wasn't actually invested in the relationship, but things had gone sour anyways. Even though Blaine wouldn't say he had had his heart broken, because he'd never been _in love_ before, it still hurt to be treated like that. And now Wes probably felt like Blaine was trading in one bad habit for another.

Not that Blaine would call Kurt a bad habit, because although slightly strange, this was the strongest relationship he'd had with a guy since... well, ever. He kept that in mind as he placed the university information on the coffee table and went into his bedroom, picking up his dirty clothes and tidy up a bit. Wes had been right about him becoming a health hazard, but it had nothing to do with Kurt. Well, mostly. Sure, he was a little sore because he couldn't spend time with him, but mostly it was just being back and still trying to get back into the swing of being a normal person and no longer 'person of interest number one'.

It was a strange transition.

Once his room was straightened (by his measure because Wes was a neat freak and Blaine was more for organized chaos himself), he grabbed some clean clothes and a towel to take a shower. He had to go back to the bar for the early shift but between that and the double he pulled last night, he was getting out before the main rush, thankfully. And it was a weekend, so that was a double thankfully.

When he got out, his phone was blinking from the bedside table with an unread text message. While running the towel over his head, he grabbed the phone and plopped onto his bed. It had been a little difficult to explain why he had to get a new phone and a new number. The former had been a necessity, since he and Kurt had trashed theirs during their not-so-vacation. The latter had been merely paranoia. But Kurt and Blaine had exchanged emails so that they could talk before Blaine got a new phone (since Kurt got a new phone within days of being free).

_my dad has finally asked the dreaded question. "have you and blaine been intimate?"_

Blaine snorted, because he could imagine after his own conversation with one Burt Hummel that that conversation hadn't been all roses and rainbows.

_what did you say?_

While he waited for a response, Blaine grabbed a handful of clothes and took it past the bathroom where in a little nook was the saddest looking washing and dryer set. Honestly, they were probably brought over on the Mayflower, they were ancient. After successfully kicking the washing machine into a working submission, he moved back into his room to catch the last few tones of a new message.

_i did what any responsible adult would do._

Blaine smiled as he typed out his next response.

_lied?_

He didn't have to wait long for Kurt's response to come through.

_like my life depended on it._

Most of their conversations were kept light, asking about each other's days. Blaine was kept busy with the two jobs and trying to find time to do his music, while Kurt had actually joined the design school as a paid intern like his cover story had been, finding that his cover story had kept him a lot busier than the actual job really did. This gave him a lot of time to read, or so he said.

As it approached six, Blaine told Kurt he'd call him during his break before shoving his phone into his pocket. Pulling on a pair of tennis shoes and a jacket, grabbing his wallet and keys, he made his way out of the apartment. The walk was quick, with a smile to some of the people that he passed, but uneventful. As always, uneventful.

Really, he shouldn't mind because the day being uneventful was a lot better than being shot at, but he couldn't help but want a little excitement.

The beginning of his shift had been interesting, what with the copious amounts of drunks that were already at the bar, flirting and yelling at the two bartenders there. One of the girls that worked there simply rolled her eyes when Blaine asked if there had been any trouble. She was a tough spirit, having worked at the bar for longer than Blaine had definitely used to the shit they gave her, before pointing him to the next in line.

He kept himself busy, either pouring drinks or cleaning up people's messes, keeping his attention on his work and not letting his mind wander. It had gotten increasingly difficult to stay busy as the crowd thinned out between rushes, the bar almost spotless and everyone's drinks full. It wasn't until someone walked in the door, drawing Blaine's attention just for a second before his head snapped back to look at the newcomer.

"No way..." There was no way that he was in the Hole in the Wall. There was no way except there was also no way that Blaine would forget that face and...

"Hey there Anderson. Long time no see." Blaine didn't really know what he should say, how he should greet this person, and it must have shown because the guy laughed, flinging his ID onto the bar as he did so.

The picture didn't look exactly like the man infront of him, but Blaine knew it was him. And the name, _Samuel Evans_, told him what he needed to know.

"What can I get you Sam?" He shrugged and looked at the beer options on the wall.

"A beer, any kind. You're looking particularly domestic with that towel on your shoulder." Blaine rolled his eyes, the remainder of the feeling of never knowing if Sam was joking with him or not coming back. A few of the bar patrons were openly staring at the scars on Sam's face, although most had the good grace to try not to stare too much. And one of the waiters from the other side of the bar, the side that had the food, actually gaped openly and almost dropped a basket of half eaten fries.

"How long have you been in town?" Blaine uncapped a bottle and passed it to his... friend? Whatever Sam was to him. The friend to his boyfriend, sure, that worked.

"Only an hour or so. Remembered this place from your dossier that Kurt showed me, decided to stop in and see if you were working. Thought I'd find Kurt in New York as well but I called him and he said he's still in Ohio. What's up with that?"

Blaine would have loved to pretend he didn't know what Sam was talking about, but he was pretty sure it was plain on his face. And besides, Sam was hard to lie to.

"He wanted to be in Ohio with his family and friends, wanted to have a normal life for a little bit. We still talk and yes, we're still together. Just together and not actually... together. If that makes sense." Blaine rolled his eyes because that didn't come out right at all but Sam seemed to know what he meant because he lifted his beer bottle in salute before returning it to his lips.

"Where's the bathroom in this place? Airplane bathrooms are unGodly and I need to piss." Blaine laughed and pointed over into the corner by the makeshift stage where some drunk was molesting the mic stand. Sam rolled his eyes and headed in that direction, beer bottle swinging from his fingers.

When he came back, he asked how long Blaine was working tonight. Blaine glanced at his watch before explaining he had three hours left, to which Sam ordered another drink and said he wanted to talk to him so he'd stay for a while.

Blaine break came quickly after that and he smiled to Sam as he passed him, heading into the back room where the workers took their breaks. Only one of the other bartenders was in there, but she was finishing her food quickly since only one bartender had a break at a time. They smiled as she exited, with him shutting the door behind her and pulling out his cell phone, dialing a number he had already committed to memory.

It went to Kurt's voicemail, which wasn't very surprising, since Kurt had mentioned something in his texts about dinner with his family and Blaine knew well the 'no phones at the table' rule that the Hummel's lived by.

"Hey Kurt. I told you I'd call, so that's what I did. Oh yea, something I forgot to tell you earlier. I had a visitor today, some Wainright or Wainworth or something, to represent a Prothero University. He said they are interested in me or something, so that was cool. The good thing is that the school is near Cleveland which is in Ohio, in case you didn't know. Which means I'd be close to my family and... and, well, you. So yea. There's something else but... I'd rather tell you that on the phone and not on your voicemail. So I'll call you tomorrow. Goodnight Kurt."

He hung up, feeling confident that if Kurt didn't know that Sam was in town, it might be best to first ask Sam if he was allowed to tell him. Maybe Sam wanted it to be a surprise, so he wouldn't give that away unless he knew for sure.

After his break, and after the next two and a half hours of pouring beers and popping the caps off of bottles, with a little cleaning thrown in there every now and then, Blaine moved over to where Sam was sitting at a table, regarding the drunks singing a very interesting rendition of Baby Got Back.

"My shift is up. Want to hang out here or what are your plans?" Sam took a long sip from his bottle, draining it, before putting it beside the other three there.

"Blaine Anderson, tonight, I am going to get you drunk."

Although Blaine started to protest, he realized that it might be fun. He hadn't let loose in a while, plus it was Sam so it wasn't like drinking by yourself. And he didn't have to be at work in the morning.

"Lead the way."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **The return of SAM EVANS! I know a lot of you were left unsatisfied by his ending in the first one, but no worries. He'll have his shining moment. I have a few other canon characters to introduce, as well as a few of my own!

Thanks to those of you that have introduced yourself on here or on tumblr, please continue to do so. I want to know my readers. So, just email me or drop me a review or a private message or stalk my tumblr. Links on my profile.

I hope you're enjoying the story!


	3. Chapter 3, Kurt's POV

**No Man's Land**

Besides the fact that Kurt definitely hadn't slept yet, he was excited to be in New York. His dad had been less than happy about him taking such a late flight, but this had been in the works for at least the past week. Maybe just the past few days. He had left in the middle of the night and arrived in New York way too early in the morning as a result.

First stop had been a coffee shop because he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep until tonight, if even. He hadn't told Blaine yet that he would be in town, wanting it to be a surprise. Half way through his coffee, Kurt remembered that he had turned his phone off in the airport in Ohio and hadn't turned it back on yet.

Once it was on and everything had caught up, he had four text messages from Blaine that were so butchered that he could only imagine he was drunk texting him. That image was enough for him to toss his drink into the trash and start towards Blaine's apartment. While doing that, he checked his voicemails.

The first was his dad telling him to text him when he landed, which Kurt ventured meant he definitely should have checked his phone when he actually did land. The second one was Blaine's voice, causing Kurt to smile. He had no idea that he'd be seeing him today.

_Hey Kurt. I told you I'd call, so that's what I did. Oh yea, something I forgot to tell you earlier. I had a visitor today, some Wainright or Wainworth or something, to represent a Prothero University. He said they are interested in me or something, so that was cool. The good thing is that the school is near Cleveland which is in Ohio, in case you didn't know. Which means I'd be close to my family and... and, well, you. So yea. There's something else but... I'd rather tell you that on the phone and not on your voicemail. So I'll call you tomorrow. Goodnight Kurt._

Kurt's footsteps slowed as he pressed his keypad to hear the voicemail again. The names sounded really familiar. Wainright and Prothero University? Besides the fact that he'd never heard of that university... it just felt familiar to him.

He rubbed the back of his next because there was also apparently something that Blaine wanted to tell him, but not on his voicemail. That in mind, he resumed his trek to Blaine's apartment, his bad slung over his shoulder and pressing heavily against the small of his back. He'd be happy when he could put it down. He'd packed for a long weekend, but he might end up staying longer. It really depended on how long Blaine wanted him to stay.

When he finally reached Blaine's apartment, he made the memorized trek up the stairs to his door, waiting a second before knocking. When the door opened, it was a familiar face, but not the one he expected. Wes squinted at him and then laughed, actually laughed.

"Oh, this is just perfect. Things finally get interesting around here and I have to go to work." Kurt raised an eyebrow because yea, that wasn't the response he expected.

"Is Blaine here?" Might as well skip the pleasantries since he had the feeling that Wes wasn't his biggest fan for some reason. Well, to be honest, Kurt could think of a few reasons.

"Yea. Do me a favor and don't break anything." He left the door open and moved to the side of the living room where he was pulling on a pair of shoes. Kurt stepped through a little uncertainly, shutting the door behind him, and glancing over at the Asian.

"And why uh... why would I break something?" Was this some sort of sex joke that Kurt wasn't understanding? Well, he understood it, just not sure about the context.

"Because Blaine got drunk and brought a guy home last night. From the sounds they were making, I'm sure they got up to something in there. And now you're here and will probably throw a complete fit and as much as I'd love to see it, I have a job. So if you'll excuse me... and like I said, don't break anything."

The door slammed behind Wes and Kurt was pretty sure he swallowed his tongue at some point during that. He had figured Blaine had gotten drunk because of the incoherent text messages, but he brought someone home with him? And Wes said they got up to something...

With a deep breath, because Kurt was never one to back down from things, he moved towards Blaine's bedroom. His stomach was turning and it felt like there was a string wrapped around his heart, a stone hanging from the end of it. He wanted to give Blaine the benefit of the doubt but right now he was having a hard time thinking of anything besides opening this door and seeing his _boyfriend_ wrapped around another guy.

And god, Kurt and Blaine hadn't even had sex yet because Kurt's ribs had protested during most of their activities and they had silently agreed to wait because it was all moving so quickly and now...

When he pushed the door open, he let his eyes survey the room as indifferently as possible. There were clothes strewn around everywhere and the chair in the corner was over turned, the comforter from Blaine's bed covering it like it had been sleeping. Blaine himself had his legs on the top of the chair, bent at awkward shapes, his his top half on the bed. There was another body, wearing boxers and a tshirt, sprawled out on the bed with his head near to Blaine's.

Kurt cleared his throat, because it wasn't what he expected to find honestly, and then cleared it again a little louder, causing both of the men to stir. Blaine blinked blearily up at him a few times before his eyes widened.

"Kurt? Is that you? Shit, am I dreaming?" Kurt opened his mouth to answer, or really to ask what was going on, but another voice stopped him.

"Someone say 'urt?" Kurt turned to the voice because even half asleep (and probably more than half hungover by the alarming amount of beer bottles on the other side of the bed that he hadn't seen at first), he recognized that voice.

"Sam?" The man rolled over to show that it was indeed Sam, rubbing a hand over his face as he tried to sit up without knocking Blaine out of his precarious position.

"Kurt! It's good to... oh god, I'm going to hurl." Hurrying out of the bed, Sam nearly tripped over the air to get out of the bedroom and somewhere where he could be sick, muttering something about _Schuester_ as he did so. The name had caused Blaine to wrinkle his eyebrows in confusion, but Kurt just laughed.

"What are you doing here? Did I know that you were coming?" Kurt shook his head and moved into the room, dropping his bag against the bed as he did so. Once he was level with Blaine, he helped hold his legs up to scoot the chair out so that Blaine wouldn't fall over if he tried to right himself.

"How much did you drink last night?" Blaine shook his head, pressing a hand to his mouth to cover a burp, and then grimaced.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say too many. Fine. I'm going to go raid your medicine cabinet and get some asprin for you both, along with some water. Should I make breakfast as well? Might as well, I haven't eaten since my plane landed anyways. You might want to put some clothes on while we're at it."

He patted Blaine's shoulder, trying to hide a smile as he did so, and moved out of the bedroom and into the bathroom where Sam was curled up against the bathtub.

"I feel like shit." Kurt gave him a once over and smiled.

"Which is coincidentally exactly how you look. Here, wash your face. Now if I were asprin, where would I... oh, there. And nifty little bathroom cups, great. Take this while I go to the kitchen to get real glasses of water for both of you."

Sam mumbled something that sounded a lot like _coffee_ before popping the pills and swallowing them dry. Kurt rolled his eyes, carrying the others into the bedroom and handing Blaine the bottle and the small paper cup of water before going into the kitchen. He set out to making coffee, pouring two large glasses of water and putting them on the table, and then started on a light breakfast.

As he finished up, shoveling the food onto separate plates, he looked up to see Blaine coming into the kitchen wearing jeans and a rumpled tshirt. Sam was right behind him, still only in his shirt and boxers, tripping over his feet as he fell into an open chair.

"When did you get in town Sam?" The person in question was gulping down an entire cup of coffee in one go, wincing as it burned his mouth, holding up one finger to say he'd answer in a second. Kurt grabbed the coffee pot, poising it over the table for when Sam finished.

After filling it up, Sam shaking his head as if that would make his mouth stop burning, he asked the question again.

"Last night some time. I got a motel room, left all of my stuff there. Thought I'd stop in at the bar where Blaine worked, in case he was working, and he was. How come you didn't tell me that you weren't in New York when we talked before? And how come you're now in New York?"

Blaine had barely lifted his head from his hands the entire conversation until that point.

"Yes, why didn't you tell me when we talked yesterday?" Kurt rolled his eyes, pushing their respective plates towards them.

"Eat. I didn't tell you, Blaine, because I wanted it to be a surprise. And I didn't tell you, Sam, because it was none of your business. What are you doing in New York anyways?" Trying to look offended, Sam spoke through a mouthful of eggs.

"Can't I stop in to visit friends?" Kurt raised an eyebrow, that being the only warning that he was about to hit below the belt.

"I don't know, let me call and ask a few people in Lima." Sam glared but didn't retort, probably sensing that that would be a lost cause.

They ate in silence for a while before Blaine posed the next question.

"How long are you in town for?" Kurt shrugged, folding his napkin over. His helping had been significantly smaller than his hung over companion's had been, so he had finished first.

"Well I packed enough for the weekend." It was an open ended answer. He had packed enough for the weekend but that didn't mean he couldn't stay longer. Blaine nodded, smiling and prodding at Kurt's ankle with his bare foot, his smile growing as Kurt rolled his eyes and hooked his ankle around Blaine's.

"You two eat. May I make use of your television?" Blaine nodded, already turning his attention back to his plate. Sam was almost finished and he nodded lightly to Kurt before turning back to his own plate. Kurt rolled his eyes affectionately, if there was any such thing, and moved to the couch, grabbing the remote and shifting through channels to find something to watch.

He was joined by Sam soon after, who leaned forward and grabbed the news papers and started to thumb through them, not looking for anything in particular. He stopped when a shiny packet fell out, the first page being a picture of a quaint looking college. Before Kurt could even think anything beyond the words on the voicemail, Sam spoke up.

"I didn't know you were looking into schools in North Carolina." Blaine came over to them, leaning over the back of the couch so that he could wrap his arms around Kurt's shoulders.

"I'm not. That's the packet from some guy that stopped by yesterday, a school in Ohio. Prothero University I think is the name."

Sam shook his head, looking at the picture.

"There's no way that this is anything but this school in NC. It's in the mountains, near where I lived. I went there to see a few plays." Kurt gave Sam a look, not bothering to call him out on that, but instead turned his look to the packet.

"Easy way to figure it out. Blaine, where's your laptop."

Blaine released Kurt's shoulders, still staring at the packet, and moved into his room. A few minutes later, and more than a few cuss words coming from that part of the apartmet, Blaine came hopping out of his bedroom holding onto his laptop.

"Stubbed my toe." He handed the computer to Kurt who opened it, typing in Blaine's password. He didn't even see either Sam nor Blaine's look of astonishment because yea, Kurt definitely wasn't supposed to know that password. Old habits die hard, or so he guessed.

He passed the laptop over to Sam who opened the internet and searched for the school in North Carolina. A series of pictures came up and sure enough...

"That's... how is that possible?" It was all the information for the small college in the mountains of NC, but changed to look like it was in Ohio. Sam typed in the information from the packet, but nothing came up.

"So the guy is a scam artist or something. Probably aims for stupid or naive college students to get them to send him their tuitions or something like that. Happens to us all Blaine, nothing to beat yourself up about."

Kurt could tell that Blaine was thinking about something, but before he could, he caught a glimpse of the card that had fallen out of the packet. It was a business card with the school name on it, but on the back was someone else's name.

"Jackson Wainright. Why does that name sound so familiar?" Kurt turned to look at Sam who shrugged, typing it into the computer and waiting for anything to show up. Halfway down the page, Kurt told him to stop.

"Look, there. That obituary." Sam clicked on it and the next page had a picture that made Kurt turn a little paler than normal.

"Says, _Jackson Wainright the Third, 36, was reported missing on the 13th of November and found dead on the 18th. Cause of death was a boating accident._ That's strange. Kurt do you... Kurt?" Kurt shook his head, a small laugh coming from his mouth as he did so.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say this picture is familiar to you?" Blaine tensed next to him but Kurt didn't have the time to dwell on that. He nodded, clasping and unclasping his hands from infront of him.

"He was one of my targets a while back. It was this... this huge ordeal, one of my first assignments. He had fallen into the wrong crowd and saw something he wasn't supposed to. The guy that hired me, he actually involved himself in the process. It was his idea to do it on the boat, to make it look like a boating accident. I never understood any of it."

Blaine was still tense next to him and Kurt wanted to reach over to him, to grab onto his hand or maybe place a calming hand on his arm or knee, but he didn't move. He'd have to wait for Blaine to come to him because his job, the past that was supposed to be behind him, had shown up at Blaine's front door and it was becoming real again.

"Start from the beginning Kurt. If these people are trying to use Blaine to get to you, we'll need to know all we can beforehand." Kurt shook his head because it didn't make sense.

Jackson Wainright's family wasn't poor or anything, but they were good and simple folk. They weren't the kind to try to go after Kurt, not backhandedly like this. Plus, they'd never seen him. He had been on the Wainright case for a total of seven hours before he finished it, no one had even seen him. Still, he started to tell his tale.

"He was my third mission. Like I said, he had gotten in with the wrong people and saw the wrong thing. The guy who hired me, Dick or Dirk I can't remember, told me that he wanted it to be on a boat. He introduced me to Wainright, said I was a friend of his, and he wanted us to be good friends. Invited us to a party on his yacht. Only when we got on the yacht, there was really no one else there. Just him, me, Wainright, and a few of his body guards. I uh... well, the details of that aren't important. Once the job was over, the guy paid me extra and shook my hand, sent me back to Ohio. That was that."

Sam was shaking his head, staring first at the obituary and then at the papers infront of him.

"Blaine, what did the guy look like? The guy that came here with this?" Blaine rubbed his neck, staring off into space for a moment, before answering.

"He was kind of short, but not like, not like unfit. He was just short. Had brown hair, but was balding in the back. He smiled a lot. I don't know, I'm not really good at this. He was really nondescript, I probably wouldn't even be able to pick him out of a crowd if I did see him again."

This time Kurt did reach over, squeezing Blaine's wrist lightly. He wanted to swear, because this should not be happening again and not like this, not with Blaine in the middle, but he held it in. However, when he moved to pull his hand away, Blaine followed it and linked their fingers together tightly, squeezing as if he had nothing else he could do.

"What about cameras? Does your building have them?" Blaine thought about it and shook his head, but Kurt spoke up.

"Not in the halls or stairways, but there is one in the elevator and then one in the front office, which you have to go through to get to the stairwell." Blaine shrugged.

"Unless this guy is a professional and knew and used one of the fire escapes to get to a main floor somehow?" Kurt knew that it was a long shot, but he glanced at Sam who shrugged and started to type into Blaine's computer.

The desktop changed and then a bunch of screens popped up, numbers and letters flying over them quickly and in a blur.

"What is he doing?" Kurt glanced back over to Blaine and smiled apologetically.

"He's using your computer to hack into the cameras main feed, if we're lucky and the cameras feed to a computer and not just recording. Don't worry, he'll erase it all once he's done." Blaine laughed, as if that had been the most worrisome part of the ordeal, and turned back to the cameras.

There was already one image up, a realtime feed of the elevators he assume since it kept changing and there were various people and sometimes no one in them. The next image that came up was of the front lobby, one picture that showed the entire lobby.

Fingers flying over the keys, Sam asked Blaine about what time the man had been there and started to rewind the cameras. The first one he did was the lobby, zeroing in on a man leaving about the time that Blaine said the man would have left.

"The jacket looks familiar." Kurt raised an eyebrow because the jacket looked depressing, but bit his lip. They rewinded a bit more until the man was entering and slowed it down, trying to get a good look at his face.

"Anything?" Sam shook his head, trying to zoom in but to no avail. The man had been wearing a hat, that he had not been wearing on his way out, and it covered his face. From there, they skipped to the elevators and rewound to the appropriate times. Nothing in any of the elevators, neither time.

"He must have used the stairs." Kurt sighed, he had honestly been hoping for some sort of a break.

"So what now?" Kurt bit his lip, glancing from Blaine to Sam and then to the laptop. There was only one thing he could really think about doing, but he really didn't want to.

"I need to make a call." He stood up, squeezing Blaine's hand quickly before releasing it and moving into his bedroom, locking the door behind him and pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.

He dialed a number by heart, hoping that it hadn't been changed, and held his breath until someone answered. He recognized the nasally voice and closed his eyes, not really sure how well this was going to go over.

"Hi Stanley."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I think some of you have missed that I do the chapters in alternating points of view, so sometimes at the end of chapters, things aren't filled in. For instance, the conversation with Stanley is never seen in full. Should I label each chapter next to the title with whose POV it is? Like _No Man's Land - Blaine_ or... let me know what'll make it easier for you dears!

Also, sorry for the wait. I got some terrible, terrible news and therefore was unable to do much. Feel free to find me on Tumblr or email, I'm always up to chat! Links on my profile.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	4. Chapter 4, Blaine's POV

**No Man's Land**

With Kurt in his bedroom making a phone call, Sam was still doing God only knew what on Blaine's laptop, Blaine stood up and moved to one of the windows in the living room and looked out of it. New York looked nice, edging slowly into winter. Really it wasn't even fully into fall, but New York always seemed to get colder just because it could.

His mind was a whirlwind, going at eight hundred miles an hour as he tried to sort through everything. He knew this could happen, Kurt had prepared him extensively for the possibility that people from his past would try to come after him. Of course he also said that it would be him that they'd be after, not Blaine. Although the man that had been in his living room hadn't seem able to hurt a fly...

"How you holding up Anderson?" Blaine glanced over his shoulder at Sam, a little unnerved that the man was staring at him while still typing, and shrugged.

"So far so good I guess. What are you doing?" Sam shrugged back and looked down at the laptop, frowning and typing just that much faster.

"Just trying to find anything that can tell us who this guy was. Have you ever hacked into a bunch of street cams at once? Like, traffic cameras and ATMs and store cameras? It's kind of redundant after a while." Blaine laughed under his breath and turned back to the window. There were cameras all over New York, surely one had caught him? And really, how was Sam able to do this on his laptop?

As if hearing his thought, Sam replied.

"Don't worry, I'll delete everything that I've put on here. It's just a few spy bots and hacker stuff, nothing dangerous. Although terribly illegal." Blaine laughed again, only slightly twinged with hysteria, before moving back to the couch. A few moments of silence (or as much silence as possible with Sam typing that fast) lapsed before Blaine's bedroom door opened and Kurt stepped out, snapping his phone shut as he did so.

"Well, do we want the good news or the bad news first?" Sam raised an eyebrow, Blaine simply sat in silence, and Kurt seemed to take this as allowing him to pick.

"Good news is that it's not the company. The bad news is that the company experienced a cyber attack, stealing only one employee's information. Three guesses who that is and the first two don't count." He slumped into the chair across from the couch and Blaine wanted to go over to him to comfort him but he had questions first.

"What did they get?" was crossed with "Why are you still on record?" as Sam also asked his own question, something that happened a lot with them. Blaine gestured to Sam, who repeated his question to Kurt.

"Because Stanley is under the completely false hope that I will give in and go back to the company so he kept it on file. And as to your question... everything. All of my jobs, all of my personal information. I don't know what they want or what their ultimate goal is, but I have a feeling it's not going to stop with them trying to bribe you to go to a made up university."

Blaine shifted and looked over to where Sam was shaking his head at the laptop.

"I figure they didn't come after me because I was the... the target that got away. They had to come to me because they thought I'd tell you about it. They had to figure you'd figure it out, so... what's the angle?" Sam looked up, obviously impressed at the thought process that Blaine had just spewed, before both of them turned to glance at Kurt.

For his part, Kurt looked a little discouraged.

"Stanley said that there was a full write-up in my file about the last assignment. Me coming after you, running away with you, the Drum and Drake things, the final altercation at the company." Sam frowned, the scars pulling tight around his mouth.

"Let me guess, there was probably something in there about you two riding off into the sunlight? And I'm sure I'm listed in there somewhere." He started growling under his breath, so Blaine chanced it and put a hand on his arm. Blaine was further surprised when Sam didn't shrug it off, simply shot Blaine what he assumed was a grateful look, and went back to typing.

"And beyond that, I don't know what to think. They probably did know I'd figure out that this was some elaborate set up so that means they want me to know. That means they are playing with me. They want me to figure it out."

Blaine stood up after a few moments of silence, going to the kitchen table and getting his water and taking a sip of it before bringing it over to Kurt. He smiled gratefully, holding it between both of his hands before bringing it up to his lips.

"So why, if they want you to figure it out, are they playing with you? Why not just come out with it?" Sam made a sound in the back of his throat that Blaine ignored. He knew it was stupid, he was thinking like a person and not a hitman, if indeed it was another hitman doing this.

"What if... could it be Drake?" Kurt shrugged, putting the glass on the television stand next to him.

"Stanley says he is still employed with the company so I don't think so. I just don't know what is going on. And I hate not being able to see what's coming next." As he spoke, Kurt's cell phone started to ring and he sighed, pulling it from his jacket pocket and then biting his lip. He answered the phone, shooting a look to both Blaine and Sam.

"Hey dad. Yes, I'm here, sorry. My phone was off because of the plane ride and I only just... yea. Blaine, my dad says hello. He says hello to you. Okay I will. Well I... oh? Uhm, can you give me that number? Uh huh. Alright. Thanks. And uh dad, if he calls or stops by again, give him my cell number? Thanks. Okay, I'll talk to you soon dad. I love you too. Bye."

When his shut his phone, Blaine could tell something was wrong. He quickly got up and tore through the packet next to Sam, before grabbing the business card and flipping it over.

"Fuck, fuck, well fuck. Sam, try to trace this number before I call it?" Sam grabbed the card, nodding and looking a little worried, before typing it into something on the laptop he had commandeered.

"What's going on Kurt?" Kurt turned towards Blaine and then sat down next to him, their legs touching from knees to hips.

"Someone from design school went to the house, asking for me. Someone named Charles Houston. Gave a number and off the top of my head, decided to look at it against this number and they matched. These fuckers are playing with me. First you, now my dad? Yea, this is personal." Blaine wrapped his hand around Kurt's, trying to reassure him as much as he could with the touch, but he knew it was hopeless. This was already more than Blaine knew how to react to, but he was going to stick with Kurt through it as long as he could.

"Okay, so the number is bouncing off way too many satelites. These guys, whoever they are, are smart. I can't trace it. But I did type in the name Charles Houston and uh, you might want to look at this Kurt."

Blaine and Kurt both leaned forward to look at the page and Blaine swore under his breath. It was another obituary, suspicious circumstances but a cold case. Kurt tensed and then let his head fall to his knees.

"Seventh assignment. This keeps getting better and fucking better, doesn't it?" Blaine wrapped his arms completely around Kurt, rubbing his back as he did so. As he kneeded his back, he felt just a little of the tension fall away before Kurt sat back up, nodding his head and wrapping one of his arms around Blaine's waist, as comforting gesture more than anything.

"Tell us about it." Kurt glanced over at Blaine, almost as surprised as Blaine was that he had said it. As much as Blaine had tiptoed around the topic of Kurt's old life, he knew that right now was not the time to pretend that everything was normal. Now was the time to just accept the fact that yes, those things happened and yes, Kurt did those things.

"Charles Houston was one of those that I didn't... I didn't know who he was or what he did. I just went in and did my job. We are always careful about DNA and things, and if we ever do get caught, the company has a way of making things go away, but... I did my job." Sam nodded, typing in a few things and then laughing under his breath.

"Arms dealer. Suspected, at least." Blaine glanced at the article but couldn't read it from his angle and then looked at Kurt, watching his face. Kurt had told Blaine one night while they had been curled around each other in Kurt's bed back in Lima that out of every ten jobs, he may have known why he was doing what he did for one of them. And he had done many, many jobs. He had confessed that it made him sick to think about it now but back then... back then, he didn't think about it.

Blaine hadn't had the words to tell Kurt that he didn't hold it against him, that he didn't judge him for it. He didn't have those words because he wasn't sure how he felt, but he knew that nothing Kurt did in his past could change the way he felt about him now.

Instead of offering comfort, and he really wanted to be able to, Blaine posed a question.

"So this seems deliberately personal, right? Me and now your dad, using names from your old assignments. Is there anything connecting these two? Anything you can think of that would explain it?"

Kurt stood up, pulling out of Blaine's arms as he did. He was pacing, obviously thinking about it, and Blaine wanted nothing more than to take him in his arms and tell him it would be okay. But at this point, he wasn't so sure he could do that truthfully.

"They were on opposite sides of the country. As far as I know, no, there is nothing linking them." Sam was the next to speak, still typing in things on Blaine's computer. He had to wonder if he was going to have to get his power cord soon with how much battery life it all was sucking out of it.

"So it's personal and random, is that what you're saying? Isn't that just fucking great. We don't even have a starting point. We don't have a middle point. We don't have anything but a bunch of goddamn useless images because this fucker knew where every goddamn camera was." Blaine and Kurt blinked at Sam because although the words were venomous, his voice was relatively calm. Kurt seemed to snap out of it quicker than Blaine, who was still trying to figure out how that had even been possible, and was pulling out his cell phone.

"I'll call the number. They've left it for a reason, might as well use it." Blaine stood up, as if to position himself closer to the phone to hear, but it was pointless because Kurt dialed the number and then put it on speaker.

It rang three times before someone answered.

"Kurt, I presume?" Kurt glanced at Blaine, silently asking if the voice was familiar, and Blaine shook his head. It seemed much too low to be the voice of the man he'd met the day before, from what he remembered anyways.

"Yes. May I ask who I'm speaking to?" The voice chuckled and despite it being over the phone, Blaine felt his fingers tighten. It was not a happy laugh, not at all. It was definitely a laugh of someone who had all the time in the world.

"Oh, but Mr. Hummel, we're already so very well acquainted." This time the voice changed, a little higher pitched than before. He was either pitching his voice or using some sort of technology to do it for him, although it didn't seem distorted enough.

Although, Blaine figured that that was just movie stuff. He really had no idea how anything worked in reality like that.

"If we're already acquainted, why don't you just tell me your name?" The man laughed, the voice back to being low again.

"But isn't this so much more fun? Tell me, are you there with your boy now? Blaine, wasn't it? Is he enjoying your stay or does the poor boy feel like he's bitten off more than he can chew?"

Tightening his fists again, Blaine bit down on his tongue so that he would not tell the mysterious voice on the phone exactly what he felt. He could see Kurt's hand shaking, just a little, but it didn't seem to faze him.

"So obviously you have a problem with me. Okay, we can figure that out. But I want you to leave my family out of this."

The laugh that followed that seemed to echo in Blaine's tiny apartment and he sat down. Whoever this guy was, he was angry. It was almost tangible through the way he next spoke.

"Oh, no, no, no, Mr. Hummel, I don't think I shall. After all, that's not how the game is played. And this is a game after all, it's a fun game, I think you'll like it, if you just gave it some time. And there is plenty of time because I am not even close to being done with you yet." This time it was obvious that Kurt's hands were shaking, although with fear or anger, Blaine couldn't even fathom.

"Why don't we just skip the game and end this right now?" His voice was calm, somehow, but a higher pitched laugh came through the phone right after it.

"Oh no, I think not. Not yet." The voice was soft, a definite change from what it was before.

The dialtone interrupted whatever Kurt was going to say, He snapped the phone shut, not even offering a glance to Blaine nor Sam, before turning and hurling the object at the wall. Blaine winced at the cracking sound it made, moving quickly to Kurt's side and reaching out, letting his hand hover over his arm but not fully touch him.

"No, this doesn't get to happen! I'm through with it, it is over, this doesn't get to happen. Not now, not ever. Who the fuck does he think he is?" Once Blaine was sure that Kurt would let him touch him without snapping, Blaine wrapped his hand around Kurt's arm and tugged him towards him, so that Kurt's arm was pressed to Blaine's chest. It wasn't much contact, but Blaine didn't want to try to pull him into a full hug and risk setting him off or something.

"Kurt, what if he gave something away in that? Something tiny that almost seemed unimportant but definitely important?" Kurt turned to look at Sam, eyebrow raised as he did so.

"Once more and in English, if possible?"

Blaine could feel just the tiniest bit of tension leak out of Kurt as his shoulders relaxed, whether from Blaine's closeness or just being off of the phone with the crazy man that was stalking Kurt. Either way, Blaine was glad for it.

"When he told you to leave his family out of this, he got really angry. That has to be a clue." Kurt shook his head, pulling just enough out of Blaine's grasp to turn around to fully face Sam.

"But he's toying with me, it could be anything. Maybe it has to do with family, but maybe he's just a demented fuck that likes to play games."

"He's a puppetmaster." This time both Kurt and Sam turned to look at Blaine, waiting for an explanation.

"Think about it. Someone stops here yesterday, and then this morning in Ohio? It's possible it's the same person, but what are the chances? If he's playing a game, he's going to want to keep an eye on all of the pieces, right? So there is definitely more than one person involved in this. They are his puppets and he is the puppetmaster."

It probably didn't help that his fingers were moving in a distinctly puppeteering fashion while explaining it, chalking it up to one too many strange school plays as a child. However Kurt raised his hands, wrapping them behind Blaine's neck, and pulled him forward so that their lips met.

It was barely for a second but Blaine felt the familiar thud from his chest cavity. He hadn't kissed Kurt since he left Ohio, so yes, he'd definitely missed this.

"You are a genius. You too Sam, but I figured you didn't want me to kiss you." Sam held his hands up and shook his head, trying not to smile as he did so.

"Did you figure something out?" Sam had pushed the laptop off of his lap and onto the coffee table as he spoke, standing up and moving into the kitchen to pour himself something to drink.

"Not exactly, but think about it. He said he's not done yet and he's not going to leave my family out of it? Which means he's going to try to contact more people. Taking into account that he means more than just my immediate family, which means only Carole and Finn are left, he might branch off to my friends. The only other people I talk to are from Glee in high school."

Kurt moved to the table, grabbing the laptop and waking it up, typing in a few things.

"So what's the plan?" Blaine watched as Kurt bit his lip before speaking, aiming his words to Sam behind him.

"I know that you don't want to be in Ohio, and I respect that. As far as this guy knows, you're not here. Hopefully. But either way, I have to go to Ohio." Sam nodded, lowering his glass back to the table as he did so.

"Okay. Fine, I'll come." Blaine watched Kurt shake his head.

"We'll have to see people from Glee. Mercedes especially." Sam swallowed thickly before forcing a smile.

"Understood. Hey, time to man up right?" Kurt laughed and went back to typing on Blaine's laptop. Blaine, who felt a little ignored in this, moved to sit down next to him.

"Booking a flight out? What time do we leave? I'll have to call out of work." Kurt, once again, bit his lip before speaking.

"I uh... this isn't like last time Blaine. This isn't us trying to protect you and you tagging along for civilian backing. This is some whack job going after me by playing with the people I care about. And I'm not going to let it happen to you. So no, you're staying here."

Although he wanted to say that he didn't believe this was happening, Blaine had actually kind of expected it. Just like Kurt to try to keep him out of the firing range.

"No. I'm sorry, but it doesn't work that way. Guess what Kurt, we're in a relationship now. What happens to you, happens to me, and if you don't let me go, I'll just fly down there by myself. I know where you live, if you'll remember."

Kurt's jaw tightened and Blaine only had a second to think that he might have crossed a line somewhere in there before he spoke.

"And if you think that I don't have ways of making you stay here, you're completely mistaken. Please, just this once, do this for me? Stay here. Don't throw a fit, don't try to talk your way into joining us, and please, don't follow us."

He couldn't place the tone, since he had definitely never heard Kurt use it before, but if he had to guess, he'd say begging. Kurt was begging him to stay out of it, to stay in New York while Kurt and Sam went trotting back into the mouth of danger. Once again. And this time he wouldn't even be there to know if something bad happened.

"I just... fine. I'll stay here. Unprotected and unaware of what is going on, that's me." It was childish, sure, but Blaine was definitely not above playing dirty right now. He wasn't going to throw a fit or try to go with them, because he could feel just how much Kurt wanted him out of the danger zone, but that doesn't mean he was happy about it.

"You think I'd leave you unprotected? Oh ye of little faith. Stanley has already offered me the use of some of his employees, the ones that were and are pro-Kurt that is, as protection detail. He already sent one up here."

Blaine laughed, bending down to tuck his head onto Kurt's shoulder.

"You'll call me? To let me know that you've landed and to give me updates? I don't... I don't want to be left in the dark on this Kurt. You..." You mean too much to me, is what he wanted to say. But he kept it to himself, instead waiting patiently for an answer.

"I promise. At least once a day, preferably many times a day. I'll call and text. If my phone's broken from it's fall against your wall, I'll use Sam's. Don't worry Blaine. Everything is going to be okay."

While Blaine wasn't sure if he believed that or not, wasn't sure he trusted Kurt's tone, he leaned forward to wrap his hand around Kurt's neck, his other hand finding one of Kurt's and twining their fingers together, and pulled him forward so that their mouths aligned perfectly.

There was no time for sweet, chaste kisses. It was another of those 'if this is the last time I'll kiss him, I want to make it count' times. Their tongues slid against each other, Kurt's free hand tangling in his curls and pulling so that Blaine would tilt his head back for a better position. They were both trying to get as close as they could while still wearing clothes... and with Sam looking on.

"Definitely won't miss you two doing that when I'm in the room."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **It's been a few days, sorry about that. Glad to finally get this one up. Sam and Kurt are heading back to Ohio and Blaine is staying in New York. I mean, only good things can come of that, right? This story is definitely going to be a little more... fast paced?... than _Shoot to Kill_, but I hope it keeps everyone's interest.

I love talking to people, about my writing or writing in general, Glee and Klaine and all that other fun stuff, or just life, so do feel free to pop in in a review or message. I'm also on Tumblr, which is the easiest way to contact me these days.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	5. Chapter 5, Kurt's POV

**No Man's Land**

It was an unspoken rule that the moment Kurt got onto the plane heading back to one Lima, Ohio, something would go wrong. It was inevitable, to be completely honest. He was expecting it through the entire process, from telling Blaine goodbye to dragging Sam into the airport, to actually boarding the plane. If Sam picked up on his anxiety, he kept it to himself. Which was probably for the best because Kurt hadn't felt this strung out in a while.

"Would you breathe please? I don't want to have to flag down a flight attendant because you passed out on me. I'm already getting strange looks." Kurt rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to respond, but was cut off by a disturbingly familiar voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but fine. If this is where my seat is, I'll take it. I'll have you know that I do not appreciate this at all." The voice continued, something about Broadway and gay dads and potential hate crimes, but the flight attendant that had walked the short woman back simply (subtly) rolled her eyes and walked away, leaving one Rachel Berry to fend for herself amongst the others in coach.

Sam must have recognized her too because both of them bent down at the same time, trying to avert their faces as much as possible. Sam was lucky enough to have the built in disguise of his original hair color and the scars. Kurt didn't have the luxury. He also didn't have a scarf or a hat or anything, so he made due with tucking his head between his knees and pretending to be air sick.

When in reality, he was just plain sick.

"Shouldn't we make contact with her? These people are potentially contacting your friends too, right?" Kurt glanced up, barely ducking down before she could see his face.

"She's not a friend. I mean, she is, but I don't think they'd go through her. Even so, we can talk to her after we land. I really don't want to spend this entire flight talking to Rachel Berry, if entirely possible." Sam laughed, peeking up and sighing, straightening his back.

They could still make out the top of Rachel's head, but she was in her seat and facing the window, no doubt pouting. Feeling a little safer, although making a mental note not to draw attention to himself for the remainder of the flight, he turned to Sam with a look.

A look that Sam new exactly what it meant because his hand subconsciously moved to rub at his face, rubbing over the scars.

"I went back packing around the world and got mauled by a bear?" Kurt raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes, a feat not many people can accomplish.

"Maybe for the first part, definitely not for the second. Back packing and got epically mugged? Close enough to the truth that you shouldn't feel too bad." Sam shrugged, dropping his hand and leaning back a little more. Kurt took that to mean that the conversation was at least over for now, leaning back in his own seat. At least for the flight up there he had brought a magazine. Now there was nothing to do but wait, wait and think about what was going to happen, and...

"Can I ask you a question Sam?" He hummed in the back of his throat as an answer, eyes shut but head angled in his direction so at least Kurt knew he had his attention.

"What happened last night? I mean, unless you're experimenting with your sexuality which you have complete right to do although I'd prefer if it wasn't with the person I'm seeing-"

Sam choked out a laugh, the both of them ducking their heads as he did so in case it drew unwanted Berry attention. However she continued to face forward, far enough ahead that she couldn't hear them talking at least, and Sam turned to face Kurt again.

"Nothing like that, I swear. I mean, we both got blitzed, but not that bad. I don't remember much but he talked about you a lot. I think that's why I got so drunk, I'm pretty sure he told me things about you two... sexually... that I want less than anything to do with."

Kurt laughed lightly, wondering what kind of person Blaine was when he was drunk. Would he be social or touchy or blubbering? He knew from a few unfortunate parties in high school, and then a lot more unfortunate parties in college, that his own drunk personality seemed to change more often than relationship statuses on Facebook for his old Glee club, which was a lot. Especially when Santana was in her confuison mode and dated almost every guy in McKinley. Well, that was just Santana, in or out of confusion.

"Is that all you remember?" Something flashed across Sam's face, a small smile as if he knew a secret, but then it straightened out and he shrugged. Kurt would have brought it up, actually opened his mouth to do just that, but had it snap close as an announcement came that they would be landing soon.

Deciding that whatever secret Sam knew was less important than what they were dealing with now, Kurt shut off the questioning part of his mind and set about to trying to think things through again. He closed his eyes at the familiar dropping sensation of the plane and went over every little bit of information he could, the names and dates and the two hits that were being brought back up and the phone conversation with whoever it was pulling the strings.

Blaine's comment that this guy was a puppeteer was very fitting, actually. Whoever it was, he knew a lot more about Kurt than was at all comforting. He also had the ability to hack into the company's files, which were heavily guarded through multiple firewalls and protection gadgets, which meant he was smart. Or at least he employed smart people. He knew about Blaine, which was a definite downside and put Blaine too far in the line of fire to feel comfortable, but he was also not above going through Kurt's family to get to him.

That was what made him think it wasn't a past or present employee. Most of them knew just how off limits family was, and even if they decided to do something stupid like that, Kurt didn't have many enemies in the company. And by many, he meant any. Because he tried his damnedest never to step on anyone's toes, but this was personal. The phone call had made that much very clear.

"Kurt? Come on, the plane's landed." Glancing up, Kurt realized that they had landed and half of the occupants were already off of the plane. Most were in the aisle, except one Rachel Berry who seemed to be bent over her chair trying to find something that she had dropped.

"No, no, come on, I just had it... oh! There it is." She uncurled her headphones from her neck and smiled at them, turning to see if anyone had seen her, skimming over Kurt's face for a second before snapping back to him.

"Kurt? Kurt Hummel, is that you? Oh, it's been ages!" She grabbed her carry on bag and headed towards where Sam and Kurt were standing, smiling as she did so.

Only thing Kurt could say honestly was that she didn't dress much differently than high school.

"You just saw me four months ago Rachel. At the Glee gathering that you forced us all to go to. On pain of 'never speaking to us again', if I recall." She made a face, as if she had completely forgotten the party, and then smiled wildly again.

"Oh, but still, four months feels like forever. Who is this, your partner?"

Sam started to splutter so hard that he almost went cross-eyed, with Kurt pounding on his back while trying not to laugh. She had barely tossed the other guy a look but now she was staring at him, only the slightest flicker of recognition to go over her face before they were interrupted.

"I'm sorry, but we need everyone to make their way off of the plane now." Kurt apologized hurriedly to the flight attendant that was staring balefully at Rachel, ushering Sam out infront of him and hoisting his own bag over his arm as he followed. He was beyond grateful that they both just did carry on instead of having to worry about baggage claim.

Once out of the terminal and into the airport, Sam and Kurt were once again cornered by Rachel. For being so short, she sure was pushy.

"Sam? Is that... that can't be... Sam?" Who could mistake that mouth? Honestly.

Instead of saying that however, Kurt simply pushed Sam a little closer to the woman, especially before she started to draw attention of everyone in the airport.

"Everyone has been wondering where you were, where you disappeared to." It was painfully obvious that she was biting down on her tongue to keep from remarking on the scars, earning a mere internal nod from Kurt who was unaware that Rachel Berry even knew the meaning of the word tact.

"Back packing, around the world. Figured I'd been gone long enough, might as well come back." Rachel nodded and then turned to glare at Kurt. Despite the ferociousness behind the glare, a lesser man would probably buckle from it, Kurt was used to it and simply looked on cooly, glancing at Sam from the corner of his eye.

They didn't have time for this.

"Did you know where he was all this time? All this time and you didn't tell anyone? His friends, his family. Mercedes? Or am I just the last to know?" Before Kurt could answer, with a long list of things that Rachel could do with her accusations, Sam cut in.

"I asked Kurt to keep it a secret. He wasn't supposed to know but we ran into one another on one of his trips and I made him promise. So if you're going to blame someone, blame me Rachel. I'm sorry I kept you all in the dark."

Rachel looked properly chastised and moved to apologize, or at least she should apologize but wheather or not she would was up to anyone, but she seemed to remember her baggage because she told them to 'wait right here' and headed off towards the conveyor belt.

"To stay, or not to stay. That's not even a question, let's go. Quickly before she spots us." Kurt grabbed Sam's elbow and pulled him from the area, straight into a large crowd.

Once outside, they had to hail a cab, since Kurt's dad had taken him to the airport for his departure. And well, he was going to have to explain why he went away for a weekend _or more dad, don't worry if I'm not back on Sunday_ and came back a few hours later instead. He hadn't thought about that.

After they finally got a cab, hopping in a little faster than necessary in case Rachel stepped outside to look for them, Kurt rattled off his address and leaned back in the seat. It was going to be a thirty minute ride from the airport to his apartment, making a mental note to tip the driver well as he fished through his bag and pulled out his cell phone. There was a little crack in the plastic, but thankfully the screen was unharmed. And it still worked, so that's what mattered.

Turning it on, and waiting for it to load up any missed calls or texts, Kurt watched as Sam brought his phone out of his bag to do the same. Once his phone was up and running, Kurt read over the text he had gotten.

_The person I'm sending to Blaine's aid got caught up in their previous assignment but assures me they will be done and at his doorstep in a couple of hours._

Kurt sent a reply to Stanley, thanking him for letting him know (and for all of this, because if it was Carlson, he wouldn't have been this accomodating) before opening a new text to send to Blaine.

_landed in ohio, heading to the apartment now. the employee is going to be there in a few hours. let me know when s/he gets there._

Unsurprisingly, he didn't have to wait long for a return text. Most likely, Blaine had been keeping at least half of his attention on his phone just for this purpose.

_i miss you already_

Sam made a noise in the back of his throat, causing Kurt's head to shoot up. He thought that Sam had seen something, or recieved something on his phone, but he was staring at Kurt's face with an eyebrow raised and his scars stretching a little in the corner of his mouth where he was trying hard not to smile.

"What?" Sam laughed, glancing at the cab driver before leaning over to him a little bit.

"You're grinning like a fool. Text from your boyfriend?" Kurt tried to cover his expression by scoffing, but it came out more as a snort, angling his phone so that Sam couldn't see it as he typed out a quick message, shoving his phone into his pocket as he did so.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me about what happened last night?" The best way to change the subject would be to make Sam uncomfortable enough to change the subject for him, that being his plan with that particular question.

"He said something about wanting to climb you like a tree? I don't know, he was drunk and I was- Kurt, is that a blush?" And his plan backfired, making Kurt tuck his head against his hands to hide the blush that he knew was there.

"I don't even want to know. Anyways, what's the plan?" Sam had leaned forward a little more, although they both knew they'd have to be careful what they said with the driver just right there. Cab drivers made excellent witnesses sometimes because no one paid them any attention.

"I guess go to the apartment and wait. Everyone has my number so if they get contacted, hopefully they'll call me with the information." As he spoke, he grabbed Sam's phone and typed a few words in the Notes section before handing it back to him.

_Voice analysis and image recognition are our first priorities. _

Sam nodded, typing something back before angling it so that Kurt could read it before sliding it back into his pocket. Sam agreed and said that all he needed was a computer to make it work. He had always been a lot better at the technology than Kurt had been. Kurt was admittedly better at the execution of the plan, pun not intended, while Sam was better at creating the plan.

At Kurt's apartment, after he paid and tipped the cab driver, they made themselves comfortable. Sam chose the couch, stretching out with Kurt's laptop and his own next to him. Meanwhile, Kurt was piled into the overstuffed chair next to the window, staring at his phone and waiting.

"I need to do something. Anything. I'm going crazy over here." As Sam opened his mouth to say something, they were both stopped short by a knock at the door. For the first time since the attack at the company, Kurt wished he had his gun with him. He still had all of his weapons and equipment from his job, tucked in a steel, locked box at the bottom of his closet. However peering through the peephole told him that he didn't need a gun, but that Sam needed to disappear. Or at least make the computers disappear.

"It's Mercedes." Sam's eyes grew wide and he tapped a few things into the laptops before partially closing his and completely closing Kurt's, leaning back on the couch and nodding to Kurt. With that being the only thing he was getting, he unlocked and opened the door.

"Hey you." His voice raised a little, which was a feat for him at best, but he was genuinely happy to see Mercedes. He hadn't seen her in a while.

"Hey to you as well. I got the strangest text from Rachel that said- oh my." Kurt had moved just enough for Mercedes to see past him, to see Sam on the couch. To her credit, she didn't shoulder past Kurt with much enthusiasm, but as she stepped into the apartment, Kurt wondered if he should leave. It felt like this was going to be a personal conversation, but something told him that they'd both need him there to be a buffer.

"I guess I don't need to introduce you two. Is anyone hungry or thirsty?" Nodding to both of them, he moved into the kitchen to give them some sort of privacy. However the kitchen was seperated by an island so he could still hear them.

"You... haven't seen you in a while Sam. How've you been?" He could almost hear Sam shrugging.

"I've been good. Traveling." While Kurt busied himself pouring the drinks into glasses with ice, he still paid close attention the conversation.

"Traveling? You just up and left Lima, without even a note, because you were traveling?"

Kurt deposited the glasses infront of Sam and then tried to hand one to Mercedes but she didn't seem to even notice it.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you Merce-"

"Hurt me? Yea, you hurt me Sam, but I could have gotten over that. You don't even know what you did to your family. Your parents, your siblings? They were heartbroken. Still are, to be completely honest. Now I don't know what this is about, but you better go see them Sam Evans, or I promise you, you'll see me mad like never before." With that she started to head back to the door before stopping, twirling back to look at Kurt.

She looked hurt, but that was overpowered by a confusion. Kurt knew she was going to ask if he knew where Sam had been this whole time, and while it had been easier to calm Rachel down, he knew he had no hope to calm Mercedes down. She wouldn't hold it against him too long, or so he hoped.

"Listen, Mercedes, I-" was overpowered by "I got a call about you Kurt-" and they both stopped talking, both smiling just a little, as Kurt motioned for Mercedes to talk first.

"I got a call about you, a girl saying her name was Bridgette Kline? She says that you're on the promotion track and since I'm a personal reference, she wanted to meet me so that we could talk about you." Kurt glanced at Sam quickly, uncaught by Mercedes, and saw that he was already opening his laptop back up.

"What did you say?" She shrugged, hoisting her purse a little higher onto her shoulder, physically trying to refrain from turning around to catch another glimpse at Sam.

"I've got classes still, I told you I'm going back for another degree? Well, I've got classes and she wants to schedule around them. I'm supposed to give her a call." She fished out something from her purse, showing it to Kurt. In Mercedes' handwriting was an already familiar number.

"Well, don't rush it. I'm on the promotion track but it takes three months to get through the levels so I'm not in a rush." Mercedes nodded, giving him a tight hug before calling a goodbye over her shoulder and then leaving the apartment.

"Isn't this just a complete clusterfuck?" Sam nodded, still typing in his computer before sighing and turning it around.

"Bridgette Kline, asssignment sixteen. I don't have to see the obituary to know what it says Sam, but thank you. Her I remember because she had three kids and I had to catch her in the two seconds it felt like before her family came home from the park. It was made to look like one of the string of home invasions in Michigan, although escalated because 'Mrs. Kline came home and interrupted the invasion, costing her her life.' Give or take a few words."

"So what does this mean? He's toying with you, obviously. And Blaine was right, he's a puppeteer because now there is a woman doing his dirty work. He's got his hands everywhere but he's nowhere? What the hell does this guy hold against you?"

Kurt shrugged, having been wondering that same question since he figured out what was going on. However, before he could even begin thinking on it too much, his cell started ringing.

"Speak of the devil." Kurt put the phone infront of him, turning it on and hitting speaker.

"What do you want now?" He could hear a cough in the background, someone other than the person because it sounded so distant.

"Ah, hello Kurt. It's always good to hear your voice. I have a bit of bad news, I'm afraid." Sam was doing something, typing quickly and angling his computer towards the phone. _He's getting soundclips, the brilliant man!_

"And what would that be, you're going to turn yourself in?" The man laughed, but cut it short.

"Oh, don't be funny Kurt, I have no intentions of that. No, this has something to do with your boy, Blaine." Kurt froze, his shoulders tensing and his fists clenching on his lap.

"If you've touched him-" The voice came back, a little offended if Kurt had to pick an emotion to go with it.

"I'd never! Or, well, maybe not never, but I certainly did not this time. I'm afraid that he's been kidnapped."

"And I'm supposed to believe you? Or at least supposed to believe this isn't another one of your games?" The man on the other line cleared his throat, and when he spoke again, his voice was alternating between low and high pitched.

"Oh Kurt, you don't even know the half of it. But why would I kidnap him when him being with you was part of my game? In fact, you flying to Ohio and leaving him in New York was definitely not part of my plan at all, not at all. But I promise you, if I'd been the one to arrange his kidnapping, I'd take credit for it."

Kurt's tongue felt heavy in his mouth. For some reason, some very strange reason, he believed the man. Which meant...

"Who else would have kidnapped Blaine?" He had said it to himself, maybe more to Sam, but the man answered the question as if it was poised for him.

"I don't know Kurt, just how many enemies do you have?" The dialtone interrupted any answer that Kurt could give, although he didn't really have one to give yet.

The anger was starting to boil up, making Kurt stand up and start pacing. He was listing every person he'd ever met in his head, mentally crossing off the ones that it wouldn't be, but he barely got halfway through when Sam grabbed his arms.

"Kurt, fucking snap out of it man! Listen, you fly up to New York. This has to be a trap, but it's a trap you have to walk into if you want to get Blaine back. I'll stay here and handle any of this sick bastard's ploys down here. I'll call Stanley, tell him what's going on. Use my phone though, so that if any of your friends call you, I can answer it."

Kurt and Sam switched phones, with Kurt's hands shaking as he tucked it into his pocket.

"If Blaine gets hurt because of me Sam, I'll... I don't know what I'll do." Sam put his hand on Kurt's cheek and forced him to look into Sam's eyes.

"Listen to me Kurt, because I'm only saying this once. Blaine will be alright. You will be alright. Everything will be alright. Now, do you have any of your old stuff or do you need to make a pitstop?" Kurt shook his head, heading into his room. He emptied the bag he had brought with him, throwing in a few spare pieces of clothing and then grabbing the locked box from his floor and opening it with the key that was on top of the closet shelf.

He put it the guns, as well as a few other things that he might need, and then turned to face Sam.

"You're not getting through airport security with that. Go to Stanley, get one of their planes to take you. I'm going to try to trace Blaine's cell phone, and if that doesn't work, I'll hack back into his building's security cameras and get something from that. We're going to make this work Kurt, I promise."

Kurt nodded, hoisting his bag over his shoulder and grabbing his keys, heading to the door.

"I'll call you as soon as I land."

It felt strange, preparing for a fight like this. He thought he was done with it all but apparently he wasn't, apparently it was going to haunt him. First he had some crazy voice on a phone trying to get under his skin, for who knows what purpose, and now he has someone kidnapping Blaine. And Blaine...

He never should have left him in New York by himself.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Hi, my name is JM and I create angst and problems. Warning ahead of time. The next chapter is angsty and violent. I'm fun like that.

I hope you're enjoying the story!


	6. Chapter 6, Blaine's POV

_Warning: _Gratuitous violence (i.e.: brutal fights, killings) in this chapter, as well as chapters following this one. If that is something that makes you uncomfortable, I would suggest you not reading the rest of this story.

**No Man's Land**

After Kurt and Sam left, Blaine was stuck with nothing to do. Except for to wait, but that didn't sound like fun at all. Scratch fun, Blaine was pretty sure that if he had to keep waiting for a response, he was going to go crazy with worry. Not that he thought Sam and Kurt couldn't take care of themselves, he had seen firsthand that they could. He just worried.

To keep from wanting to check his phone constantly, he put it on the loudest level and slid it into his pocket before moving into his bedroom and frowning. The flight wouldn't be very long, but he had to keep busy. He gathered the empty beer bottles, throwing them in the trashcan in the kitchen, bfeore moving back to his room. He started to sort through his clothes, going as far as making a pile that needed to be washed and then given away.

His phone rang an hour or so after they left, making the hair on the back of his neck rise as it vibrated and rang loudly, but the caller ID read Wes.

"Hey, what's up?" There was a noise, like someone dropped something, followed by the usual rush of noise that accompanied Wes calling from the restaurant.

"Just wondering if you're alive, and everything in the apartment in one piece?" Blaine frowned, half at the comment and half at the shirt in his hands. He hadn't worn it in a while, but it was his favorite.

"Why wouldn't it be?" He didn't want to give it away, but if he rarely ever wore it anymore, should he really lobby to keep it?

"Because you had a guy over and then your supposed boyfriend showed up this morning?" Deciding it was worth it, he threw it into the pile to be washed and kept. If he didn't wear it in a week, he'd throw it away.

After throwing the shirt into the pile at his side, the words that Wes had spoken caught up to him.

"Wait, what?"

"That guy you brought home last night. Kurt didn't get pissed that you were with another guy?" The words weren't coming through rude, just sounded like Wes was honestly wondering how it went. Blaine rolled his eyes as he spoke.

"Sam is a friend that was in town and needed a place to stay. Kurt introduced us. We got drunk last night, but nothing happened. He's straight."

Even if he wasn't, Blaine was definitely not one to cheat. He'd rather end a relationship if he found someone else, not string someone along. That's not the type of person he was.

"I'm just giving you hell Blaine, sorry. I have to get back to work, but listen, bring Kurt in to the restaurant for dinner. I won't even spit in your food this time. Text me when you're here."

The dialtone interrupted Blaine's excuse making. Not that he didn't have more to worry about rather than making excuses for why they wouldn't be at dinner tonight. Really, he had a lot more to worry about. That in mind, he continued with his sorting of his clothes, trying to keep from glancing at his clock every few minutes, focusing intently on his clothes until he had gone through them all. He needed something else to take his mind off of things or else he'd probably stare at his phone.

He was stuck between deciding if he wanted to wash dishes or rearrange his bedroom when his phone beeped, signalling a text message. He pulled it back from his pocket, letting out the breath he'd been holding at Kurt's name showing up.

_landed in ohio, heading to the apartment now. the employee is going to be there in a few hours. let me know when s/he gets there._

It was very to the point, lacking emotion, and could have been sent to anyone from anyone. With a smile, Blaine typed out his response.

_i miss you already_

The response took a few minutes, giving Blaine time to sort through the dishes in the sink so that he could easily wash them.

_i miss you. stay out of trouble._

Blaine could have easily sent back that he wasn't the one in trouble, but he pressed his phone back into his pocket, rolling up his sleeves and turning on the faucet. Now was not the time to fuss over technicalities. Knowing that Kurt and Sam had landed safely in Ohio, Blaine felt a little better and started in on the dishes, mumbling under his breath about how Wes was a great cook but a shitty cleaner.

Honestly, half of the dishes were from Wes and more than half of those were still covered in food. While scrubbing at one particularly difficult plate, with what looked like macaroni crusted on it (and when was the last time they ate... nevermind, don't think about it), there was a polite knock on the door. Blaine's heart thudded a little painfully at first, realizing that this was going to be the employee.

His only interactions with the company hadn't been very happy, but he took a deep breath and turned off the water, wiping his hands on his pants legs as he moved to the door, pulling it open with a smile. The woman behind the door looked anxious, looking very much like she'd rather be anywhere but there.

"Are you Blaine Anderson?" Blaine nodded, briefly wondering what the protocol for meeting a highly trained member of a secret company of hitmen was. Should he shake her hand or bow or...

"Yea, that's him." A male voice came through right as a man pushed past the girl, another man pulling her into the apartment while someone else slammed the door. However all of that was secondary to the male that had stormed through first, the one that had identified Blaine, the one that was holding a pistol to Blaine's face.

It only took a second for the face to click into Blaine's mind, a brief flash of a man storming into a hotel room, brandishing a gun and pointing it at Kurt, who was clutching his already shot arm on the ground. Drake, the employee that had taken Kurt's assignment to kill Blaine but when that was canceled, was hired by Frank Carlson to kill Kurt.

It seemed to have gone back to killing Blaine, if the gun in his face was anything to go off of. His hands clenched at his side, the side of his hand brushing against the outline of the phone in his pocket. Could he call Kurt without Drake seeing? Even if Kurt was in another state...

"Uh. What is-" Drake stepped forward, his free hand clutching around Blaine's throat. He wasn't squeezing, merely using his grip to keep Blaine infront of him. He pressed the side of the gun against his cheek, pressing it in hard enough that Blaine thought he would definitely have the imprint of the gun there.

"I could be the guy that tells the victim what's going on and what to expect, but that's not me. What I'm going to do is tell you that you are coming with me and if you try to escape or annoy me, I'm going to shoot you between your eyes. Let's go." He spun away from Blaine, stepping back towards the door where Blaine caught a glimpse of a guy with his hand wrapped around the girl's shoulders and two other guys standing nearby.

"Should I pack a bag, do you think? Do I have time to use the bathroom? I just want to get it out of the way so that I don't annoy you later on." He was stalling, although he was giving himself some credit because that was pretty creative. He was almost positive that Drake would say no, might even shoot him just for the hell of it, but instead he nodded.

"Pack a bag, but be quick about it. And no to the bathroom break. You're just going to have to hold it." Blaine nodded, tripping over his feet in his haste to get to his room. He grabbed the small bag that he used the last time he was kidnapped, and honestly he never thought that would ever be a legitimate thought process. He threw in some shirts and pants, pulling on a jacket and sliding his bare feet into a pair of tennis shoes. He threw his wallet in and cast a glance over his shoulder before reaching into his pocket and pulling the phone put, tucking it into his jacket pocket as stealthily as possible.

The guy that was standing at the door watching him had missed the movement, thankfully, and he slung the bag over his shoulder with a nod to the guy. He knew they'd probably not let him leave a note like Kurt had, and he didn't want to ask. Wes would probably just think that Kurt and Blaine had run off again. Hopefully. He pocketed his keys, wincing as Drake dug the nose of his gun into his ribs.

"We're walking out of this building together and then getting in the car that is parked right infront of the door. I don't want to shoot you with a lot of people watching on, but understand this Anderson, I will."

The group stepped out of the apartment, not bothering to lock it behind them and made their way towards the stairs. Drake had pocketed his gun and Blaine cast a glance to the others, wondering if they all had guns stashed on them somewhere. They passed a woman and two small children, Blaine smiling to them calmly as Drake subtly pushed his pointer and middle finger into his back, a prodding gesture or a warning. Either way, Blaine hurried down the steps and past the family, breathing a little easier as they made it to the lobby.

"Out of the doors and to the car. Don't fuck yourself over." Blaine nodded, feeling the familiar dread start to roll over him. This was real in a way that being with Kurt hadn't been. While it had been scary, being with a hitman and not knowing what the fuck was going on, Kurt had calmed him somehow. Maybe because he sensed Kurt didn't actually want to hurt him. Maybe because he was hopelessly infatuated with him. Whatever the reason, he had felt safe as long as he was with Kurt.

Now he was being pushed into a large dark SUV, his body slamming into the body of a very large guy who rolled his eyes and went back to looking out of the window. How many people were involved with this? Drake and one other guy got into the SUV, Drake in the passenger seat and the other guy driving. That meant that there was at least one other vehicle for the others.

He didn't want to ask what this was about, he didn't want to hear Drake say that he was trying to get back at Kurt. He was sure that's what this was about though, the only reason Drake would go after him would be to get to Kurt. He dwelled on that, thinking about Kurt walking into this trap. If they made a demand, Kurt's life for Blaine's, Blaine was sure that Kurt would go willingly. It made him sick to his stomach.

That thought made him tuck his hand into his pocket and flip the phone over a few times. He could call Kurt, let him know what was going on. Just leave the phone on, let him hear the conversation. Well, he'd have to start a conversation, but he could do that. First he turned down the volume, knowing that if Kurt texted him it would blast and then he'd be in a world of trouble. Once he was sure it was on silent, he flipped the phone open and held his breath, pressing the 5 button, Kurt's speed dial.

After a few moments, wondering how long it would take Kurt to answer the phone, he tried to find a way to start up a conversation without 'annoying' Drake. He really didn't want to get shot.

"It was uh, very nice of you to let me pack a bag. Thank you." Drake turned to look over his shoulder, glancing up from the little device that he was fidding with in his lap, and smirked.

"As you said, it's to make sure you don't annoy me later on." Blaine nodded and glanced out of the windshield, looking at the signs they were passing under on the interstate.

"Where are we heading?" There was nothing pleasant about Drake's smile, although pleasant was not a word that Blaine would associate with the other man anyways.

"None of your fucking business, that's where." Blaine nodded, snapping his mouth shut for a moment before quietly shutting his phone.

He would do this a few more times, opening his phone and calling Kurt from his pocket, trying to draw any of the other occupants in the car into a conversation. Drake actually seemed amused by his attempts, not calling him out on being annoying even once. The signs said they were heading south, but they stopped five hours after leaving New York. They were somewhere in Virgina, with only one building in sight. Blaine tried once more to call Kurt, seemingly talking to himself as he said that the house looked rundown and that he hadn't been in Virginia in a while, before shutting the phone and allowing himseld to be pushed into the house.

The inside was in just enough better care that Blaine wasn't afraid of falling through the floorboards. One of the guys, the one that had been sitting beside of him in the car, grabbed his bag and tossed it to the side, pushing Blaine onto the dirty couch and walking away.

The drop onto the couch had caused his phone to slide out of his jacket pocket and he struggled to retrieve it, but stopped when Drake tapped his shoulder with the gun. His eyes were on the phone, seconds from passing between the cushions, and he reached down to grab it.

"Let me guess, you called Kurt to come rescue you?" Blaine didn't answer because it wasn't like that, except that it completely was. He had called Kurt, knowing that if Kurt had found out what was going on, he'd do anything he could to save him. He wanted to keep Kurt safe and calling him probably jeopardized that. Not to mention that that was probably somewhere on the 'annoying' scale for Drake. However Drake simply smiled and held up the device he had been fiddling with in the car the entire ride.

"I expected this. In fact, I planned for it. Do you know what this is Blaine? It is a portable signal jammer. It comes in handy during assignments, and when you're kidnapping someone. None of your calls went through. Not one." He slipped Blaine's phone back into Blaine's jacket pocket, patting it with a sick smile.

Blaine's stomach felt ice cold, which he realized was actually just dread. That meant that Kurt didn't know where he was, that he had been kidnapped at all. That was... he wasn't sure what that was. He was happy because that meant that Kurt wasn't in danger. Yet at least. But at the same time... he wasn't cut out for this. He was keeping his calm just barely, somehow. He had to keep a calm mind about it, freaking out about the inevitable would not make it go away. It would only make it worse.

"Face it Anderson. You're stuck here."

The next few hours went by painfully slowly. Everyone mostly ignored Blaine, leaving him alone to his thoughts. His stomach was in knots as he tried to figure out what he could do to get out of this. He was sure if Sam or Kurt were in his place, they would have at least three plans to get out in one piece but he could barely see past the gun that Drake kept in his hands at all time. He would glance over at Blaine from his position at the desk across the room and smile before going back to reading whatever was on the computer screen he was looking at.

Just when he thought that they were going to let him give himself a heart attack, Drake moved over to where Blaine was and grabbed the collar of his jacket, using it to leverage him into a standing position. He stared at him for a moment before smiling, the completely unpleasant smile that was causing Blaine's stomach to feel like it was going to empty itself on the floor.

He didn't speak as he dragged Blaine into a far back room, maybe an old dining room or something. A guy that Blaine didn't recognize from his apartment was holding onto the girl's arm. She looked a little shaken but she wasn't trying to run away. Blaine wondered if she was being held there too, or if she was just unnerved to be around this many people with guns since she looked like she was the only one that wasn't armed.

"I'm going to give you a chance Blaine. A chance to take back a little ground right now. Give me your hand." Without waiting for Blaine to even move, Drake grabbed his hand and hoisted it up, aiming it at the girl, before sliding his gun into it. Blaine looked at it, remembering the weight of Kurt's gun in his hand before, and then glanced at Drake at his side.

"What-" Draked glanced at the girl and Blaine followed his gaze, watching the guy step out of the way with a grin. The dread seemed to start up again, causing a chill to run down his spine.

"I want you to shoot her. To injure, to kill, it's up to you. Just once, that's all. Don't you want to know how it felt when I shot Kurt?" Blaine's hand dropped to his side and he shook his head. He had half a mind to turn the gun on Drake, but he knew that he probably expected it. Actually, that was probably the point of this whole thing. However he kept his hand by his side, shaking his head hard to disguise the shaking of the rest of him.

"No. You're fucking insane." Drake grabbed his free arm and twisted it behind his back, causing Blaine to arch and scream out. The strain on his elbow made it feel like it was about to snap out of place. With his free hand, Drake raised the gun and pointed it at the girl, Blaine's hand still wrapped around it.

"Either you shoot her, or I'll do it. And I don't miss Blaine."

His heart was pounding in his chest, his elbow hurting so badly that he wanted to scream again, and his stomach was residing around the bottom of his shoes. He felt physically ill, his stomach turning over and over at the mere thought, but he had to. He knew he had to. He shakingly put one finger on the trigger and looked at the girl. Because she was so far away, he had to be careful. He could aim for her arm, maybe her leg. Those healed. He wondered what would happen if he purposefully missed. Would Drake count-

The gunshot rang out loud, shaking the walls and causing Blaine to roll backwards, the snapping sound of his elbow popping out of place almost louder than the gunshot had been. Drake released him, stepping back and pulling the gun out of Blaine's fingers as Blaine collapsed on the floor, screaming at the pain in his arm.

He didn't need to look at the girl to know. He had barely felt Drake's finger press over his to pull the trigger. He had barely felt it but he knew what it meant. The girl, whoever she was, was dead now. Blaine didn't need to look at her, tried to focus on the pain in his arm and crying out although it did no good, but he found his eyes moving up. The girl was on the floor, on her back, her legs bent awkwardly. He couldn't see her face but he imagined there being a bullet wound there, since her chest was clean.

Drake bent down, the gun tucked away somewhere out of sight, and Blaine felt even more physically ill at the look on his face.

"I told you. Either you do it, or I would." As Blaine opened his mouth to respond, Drake grabbed his arm and popped his elbow back into place with a quick movement, causing Blaine to collapse once more, groaning and clutching his arm. He felt hot and cold at the same time, tears prickling behind his eyelids.

"Why... why are you doing this? What's the point?" Drake stoop up and kicked Blaine in the ribs twice, not hard enough to break them but definitely hard enough to hurt.

"Because Kurt Hummel doesn't deserve to be happy anymore. So while I wait for him to get my message, wait for him to come here so that I can kill him, I'm going to destroy his happiness slowly."

It wasn't physically that Drake was trying to destroy him, that much was obvious. The dislocated elbow, the kicking, that was nothing compared to the trauma that had been dealt by making Blaine participate in killing someone. It hadn't hit yet, he was still in shock that it had happened, despite the body lying only a few feet away.

"You're fucking sick." Drake smiled, pulling the gun from the holster under his jacket that Blaine hadn't seen.

"Or so I've been told. Leave him in here, I've got to a message to deliver."

Drake and the other guy left, not shutting any doors. Blaine glanced from his spot on the floor to the body, feeling physically ill once more. He had done that, he had helped. He hadn't meant for it to happen. He crawled forward a bit, wincing at the pain that shot up his arm, but continued until he was level with her feet. There was a bullethole in her forehead, her eyes open and wide with terror. He reached out with the hand that had been wrapped around the gun, flexing his fingers for a second before letting them hover over her eyelids.

He wanted to shut them. He didn't want this image to be burned in his memory, he wanted to take it all back. He lowered them an inch more before snatching his hand back. He tried to remember how he felt when he had seen Carlson's body on the floor, shot by his own brother. He even tried to remember going to his grandfather's funeral, seeing the body in the casket looking more healthy in death than he had in the last months of his life, but nothing felt right.

He sat up because there was suddenly a lot of noise coming from the other room, causing him to push himself up and walk into the room he had just been in. Everyone was bustling around, looking a little franctic. Drake was shouting at someone in another room. Whatever was going on, Drake wasn't amused. He stormed into the room, pointing his gun at Blaine's form before rushing over there and letting it connect against his face. He fell sideways, catching himself on a nearby chair so that he wouldn't crash onto the floor.

He could feel a little trickle of blood creeping down his temple but he didn't move to wipe it away.

"Kurt was seen on the main road. He'll be here in a couple of minutes." Blaine's heart thudded painfully. How was that possible, he'd only been gone for... he glanced at his watch and cursed. How had it been almost nine hours?

"I thought that's what you wanted, for him to come for me?" Blaine's mouth felt dry as he said it because Drake's words were 'so that I can kill him' and he suddenly wanted never to see Kurt again if it meant he'd live.

"Not yet, it wasn't supposed to be yet. We'll have to improvise. And you'll be staying near me. Either you'll distract him or I can use you as a human shield." He hoisted Blaine up by the collar of his jacket again and pushed him into the living room.

In the distance, Blaine could hear a car driving up the gravel driveway.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Like I warned, this chapter has a little more violence than I started out to write. If this makes you uncomfortable, like I said, I suggest you don't read the rest of this story.

On a relatively unrelated note, sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I'll definitely try to be faster with my chapters. Sorry for putting so much angst and cliffhangers already in this story. I seem to be addicted to cliffhangers. I do it with love, I promise.

Thank you for reading this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.


	7. Chapter 7, Kurt's POV

**Chapter warning: **Violence and a scene of sexual nature.

**No Man's Land**

The road was gravel and he could make out the house, just barely, in the dark. There were a few lights on in the house, including a porch light that was flickering. Kurt had seen the cars waiting on the main road, which were following him now. The part of him that was worried that he was marching into a house filled with potentially renegade company employees with guns by himself was only squashed by the part of him that was worried that Blaine was alone in a house with potentially renegade company employees with guns.

He didn't know if Blaine was still alive. He didn't know if he'd been tortured or beaten, although both were possible. Kurt had gone through every avenue he could think of, having Stanley fly him to New York and then stopping to carjack Blaine's car. Sam had done some serious long distance hacking and explained that it was Drake and a bunch of other people that had kidnapped Blaine. He also mentioned that there was a girl with them, but he hadn't seen her face in any of the shots.

Stanley had even gone through the motions, recounting everything he could about Drake. He had given Kurt a few of the local company members as backup, but because this was personal and not related to the company, they stayed just enough behind that they would catch any one trying to escape. That was also going to come in handy seeing as how Kurt's main goal was to get Blaine out of the house and to kill Drake. That was all he cared about, he didn't care about what happened to himself or anyone else in there. The only ones that mattered was Blaine and Drake, for very different reasons.

There were three men out on the proch, shifting nervously. Kurt parked just far enough away that they wouldn't try to shoot at him yet. The bag on his lap was open and he stuffed extra cartridges in his pockets, tucking one gun into the waistband of his jeans before palming the other one. He had a knife in one jacket pocket, slightly curved at the top, but that was just a precaution. Once he was sure that he was as prepared as he could be, he stepped out of the car and made his way towards the house.

As Kurt got closer, drawing his gun up to height and preparing to fire, he watched as the men simply stepped away from the door. Of course, this was all for Kurt's benefit wasn't it? Kidnapping Blaine wasn't just for the hell of it, it was to get at Kurt. They wouldn't fire at him, not yet at least.

He walked up the stairs slowly, keeping his gun trained on the three of them before approaching the door. Quickly preparing himself for whatever he would find, he turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. There were a few people in the front room, all looking from where Kurt stood at the door to further back in the room where two other people stood.

Drake held a gun in his hand, loosely as if he didn't feel like it was necessary, but it was pointed to his left where he was holding Blaine. Kurt looked him over quickly, focusing on the blood trickling from his temple and the way he was holding his arm to him. It didn't look like too much, thankfully, but there was something utterly frightened about the man. There was a fear in his eyes, or maybe not a fear per se, that made Kurt's heart pound terribly. If he wasn't injured, then Drake had done something else. Told him something maybe, told him stories of the job.

Kurt pushed the thoughts behind him. Drake holding Blaine at his side like that was a clear sign that Drake had been caught off guard, he knew better. He was trying to catch Kurt off guard, thinking that Kurt would be wary of doing anything that could accidentally hurt Blaine. He had to focus, he had to be very careful of his next moves.

"Well this is vaguely familiar. Hope you found the place easily Kurt, not too much trouble I hope?" Kurt had forgotten how notoriously chatty Drake was during standoffs. He edged his gun just a little more to the right, knowing just how far he could point it before it would be off the mark completely.

"Skip the pleasantries Drake. What is going on in that messed up head of your's? Did you honestly think that this was going to end, in any way, in your favor?" Drake's hand tightened around the gun and by the way Blaine shifted, probably around the arm he was holding into, pulling him just an inch further infront of him.

"It seems to already be in my favor Kurt, or haven't you noticed?" He jabbed the gun into Blaine's side, making him wince and try to shift out of the way but Drake held him still.

"Blaine, are you okay?" He nodded, glancing at the man holding him before looking back at Kurt. His face was white and he had sweat dropping and mixing with the blood on his face. He hadn't even been afraid when Kurt had pulled the gun on him. Kurt nodded once, making sure he kept his eyes locked on Blaine's before just barely letting them dart to the side. Blaine followed his gaze but there was nothing there, just the bag that Blaine had packed, nothing for him to figure out what Kurt was trying to say, which Kurt hoped...

If Blaine didn't play his part, this would all end really badly. Kurt raised his other hand, steadying his hand.

"Before you even fired that gun I could-" Whatever Drake was about to say was cut off as Kurt pulled the trigger, hitting Drake somewhere on his right and making him rock backwards. Blaine thankfully seemed to understand and shot to his left, wincing as he landed on his injured arm, but stayed down as another flurry of shots went off.

Kurt pulled the other gun out of the back of his jeans and shot at the guys that were pulling their guns, numbering them as he went. He knew how many people were in there, not to mention the ones on the porch which hadn't come in and probably hightailed it away from the house after the first shot. He felt something graze his arm but he kept his eyes on the people. At least it was not the same arm that he got shot in just over a month ago. Another bullet grazed his leg, actually making him stumble a bit, but he kept going.

He wasn't shooting to injure or to incapacitate, he was shooting to kill. The only person that he knew was still alive was Drake, simply because he wanted him to drop Blaine first. Once he was sure that there was no movement, Kurt moved to where Blaine had dropped and, keeping half his attention on the room, grabbed the arm that he wasn't cradling to help hoist him up, handing him his bag as he did so. After a moment, he also held out one of his guns.

"Take this, go to the car. Your car. I'll be out there in a minute. If anyone comes after you, just aim and shoot. I'll be fast." He still didn't focus his attention on Blaine, waited for him to nod, before turning and surveying the room. Blaine disappeared through the door, clutching Kurt's spare gun as he did so. Kurt didn't wait, started going over and counting the bodies on the floor, before moving to the other rooms. He went around, unplugging all of the computers that were running in some of them, but stopped short at what he found in one room.

A girl, someone he sort of recognized from the company, was sprawled on her back in a rather uncomfortable position, eyes open and a bullet wound on her forehead. Kurt shook his head, closing his eyes and breathing out slowly, before turning around and making his way back to the front room.

There was one thing, one person, missing. Kurt moved to the center of the room where Drake had fallen and looked around, feeling a curl of dread sneak up on him. Drake was gone. He should have gone to Drake first, before exploring the house. The one person he definitely didn't want to get out of here alive.

He ran from the house, exchanging the cartridge for a fresh one before looking around. He could barely make out the car in the distance, and he didn't see or hear anything. Keeping his eyes and ears open, he made his way to the car and slid into the driver's seat, slamming the car in reverse as he did so.

"What... what happened?" Kurt glanced at Blaine in the passenger seat, his hands shaking in his lap, and shook his head. He wasn't going to worry Blaine with that just yet.

"There some company members at the end of this road. I need to stop and update them on what's happened, but then we'll be out of here." He faced forward once more, inwardly wincing as he did so. He could feel a little trickle of blood going down his leg and the area where the bullet had grazed on his arm hurt, but it wasn't enough to draw his full attention.

Drake was somewhere still alive, although with a bullet somewhere on his upper half. Blaine was safe, although looked like he'd be scared away by a cough. Kurt could almost not handle it, couldn't handle knowing that because of him, Blaine had been put through hell. Just what sort of hell, Kurt wasn't sure yet.

Upon spotting the company cars, Kurt stopped the car and stepped out, telling Blaine he'd be right back. He approached one of the men that he had worked with before, casting a glance backwards.

"Three got away unscathed. The rest are in the house, dead. One was not involved in the fight, a woman in the back room. And, Drake got away." The man cursed under his breath, glancing over his shoulder.

"We got the first three, stumbled upon us trying to get out of here. We'll canvas the area for Drake, but keep your eyes open on your way out. We'll call for a cleanup." Kurt nodded, clapping his hand to the man's shoulder before heading back to the car, breathing in deeply before climbing in.

After leaving the area, Kurt waited until they'd been on the road for at least half an hour before addressing Blaine.

"Are you okay? Do we need to stop for medical attention?" Blaine shook his head, wincing as he did so and reaching up to touch his temple.

"No. I'm fine. What about you? Your arm is bleeding." Kurt glanced at it and shook his head, urging the car a little faster.

"It's fine. I'm fine. Just a graze. I'll drive a little longer and then pull off, we can get a room for the night." Blaine nodded, turning to face out his window.

Inwardly swearing, Kurt relaxed a little and stopped driving as fast as he had been. His mind was still going at hundred miles an hour though. Drake kidnapped Blaine, brought him out to a remote area. Whatever his plan was, Kurt's little helping phonecall from whoever it was that was making his life hell had disrupted it. At that disturbing though, Kurt couldn't help but wonder if he should actually be grateful for it. Sam had done his part, hacking into cameras to find out who had taken Blaine, and then it was left to Stanley to use whatever resources he had to give Kurt directions.

Kurt really wasn't sure he even wanted to know how Stanley knew where Drake was. That was one thing he hadn't thought about yet.

And then he had gotten sloppy, gotten distracted, and left the one person he wanted dead the most unattended. Drake got away. If Kurt knew it wouldn't scare Blaine more than he already was, he would probably scream or punch the dashboard. As if sensing his agitation, Blaine reached over and placed his hand over one of Kurt's on the steering wheel, curling his fingers around it and pulling it to rest between them. It was all that Kurt didn't know that he needed, releasing the ball of nerves in his stomach with a sigh.

He was still going to want to apologize, to talk it over with Blaine, but not now. Not tonight, if he could help it. Whatever Blaine had gone through in the hours that Drake had him, it wouldn't do well to discuss it in the car.

A few hours later, only a few hours before daybreak, Kurt pulled off of the interstate and kept an eye out for a hotel. He found a nice one, nicer than they'd stayed in before, and pulled in. Blaine had fallen asleep, still clutching Kurt's hand, but the grip was loose and Kurt was able to pull away.

Kurt paid for a room, asking for a double instead of a single, and headed back towards the car. He didn't want to assume that Blaine would want to share a bed with him, not after what happened. He wasn't even really sure where they stood as a relationship. If it wasn't for Kurt...

To be honest, Kurt wouldn't even blame Blaine for holding him solely responsible for whatever happened.

He grabbed both of their bags, shaking Blaine awake afterwards. Blaine blinked a few times, glancing around the car as if he had forgotten where he was. Once he was sure of his surroundings, he stepped out of the car and took his bag off of Kurt's shoulder, hefting it over his own shoulder with a wince, and followed Kurt to the door of the hotel.

"We've moved up in the world." Kurt smiled lightly, holding open the door for Blaine with a slight flourish.

"Figured we deserved a little more than a sketchy roach motel." Blaine nodded and they made their way up the stairs to the second floor where Kurt glanced at the card key in his hands before counting the doors.

"Room 117, here we are." He opened the door and once again waited for Blaine to step in before following. Blaine stopped just inside of the door and Kurt shut the door behind him, wondering what had drawn him up short like that. He checked over his shoulder to make sure that there were to beds, sighing once he saw that there was. Part of him was a little disappointed, but he knew that it might not be easy for Blaine, so he pushed that away and kept moving.

"Here, let me... I brought my first aid kit. Do you want me to look at your forehead?" Blaine seemed to think about it before nodding, letting Kurt move forward with the little plastic kit. He wiped some of the blood off to figure out how large of a cut he was looking at, but it wasn't as bad as he imagined. He wiped over it a few times, whispering apologies as he did so, before declaring that it was fine.

"It's not even bleeding anymore. I'm going to take a shower. I'll be out in a few minutes and you can take one if you want." Blaine nodded and moved to the bed on the far side of the room, sitting down on it and grabbing the remote, flicking the television on.

Kurt took a quick shower, washing the blood off his leg and arm before applying a bandage to the graze on his leg. His arm wasn't bad, it barely did more than skim his skin, but it hurt. His leg was a little worse, but not by too much. Once he was done, he stepped out and motioned for Blaine to take a shower. Blaine skirts around the edge of the room to grab his bag before going into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind him. Kurt tried not to wince at that, he really did, but it slipped.

He checked that the door was locked before checking the window and then, with a sigh, curled up on his side facing Blaine's bed and waited. The shower was at his back, so he simply closed his eyes and listened. There were noises outside of the hotel, car horns and just general traffic, and then there was the noise coming from the bathroom, the tap and the then the faucet while Blaine brushed his teeth. He was humming around his toothbrush, a thought that made Kurt smile a bit, before he screwed his eyes shut tighter at the sound of the door unlocking.

There's a moment or two of muffled movement as Blaine moves about the room, turning off the television. Just as Kurt opens his eyes though, intent to probably creepily watch Blaine crawl into his bed for the night, he feels his own bed dip and then there is a warm body pressed against his back, an arm thrown over his waist and a hand feeling down his arm until it comes into contact with Kurt's hand and then they are intertwining their fingers and Kurt feels that much better.

He feels Blaine shift and press a light kiss to the back of his neck, whispering a goodnight as if he thinks Kurt's already asleep, but it doesn't matter. Only minutes after that and they are both falling asleep.

When Kurt woke up, he found that they were in the same place as last night. The sun had come up already, dull through the curtains that Blaine must have pulled over at some point last night. There is a hand wrapped in his, but the fingers and squeezing and Blaine is rubbing his thumb over Kurt's hand and he knows that he's awake. He pulls his hand away and rolls over so that he can face him full, trying to smile as he does so, but Blaine isn't smiling. In fact he's biting onto his bottom lip so hard that the skin is turning white.

"I know that... I know that we need to talk about last night and everything, but I just... can you kiss me?" Kurt furrowed his eyebrows because that was a strange request, but gave in and bent down and pressed his lips to Blaine's. But when he pulled back, Blaine followed him.

"Blaine, what-" But he was interrupted by Blaine leaning up and claiming his lips once more. Kurt couldn't complain, wouldn't even if his mouth wasn't preoccupied, and simply angled his head just enough to return the kiss. One of Blaine's arms was wrapped around Kurt's body, pressing warmly against the small of his back, while his other had snuck under Kurt and was pressing against his neck. While Kurt had spent a fair amount of time the night before trying to convince himself that he'd be okay if Blaine told him that he wanted nothing to do with him, he was now trying to catch up with the rest of his thoughts.

Blaine was pressing against him, moving just enough not to be classified desperate, but Kurt was pretty sure he understood. Whatever had happened last night, Blaine was trying to reaffirm that he was alive and well. And if the best way he could think of doing that would be like this, who was Kurt to stop him?

Kurt even made it easier, rotating so that he could pull Blaine on top of him, shifting so that Blaine could pull his arms out from under him. As Blaine ran his tongue lightly over Kurt's bottom lip, Kurt accepted the invitation without a second thought, sliding his tongue out to meet Blaine's. It hadn't been a day since they were like this last, although then it had been on Blaine's couch and not horizontal on a hotel bed. It had been weeks since they had been horizontal. It had been weeks since they'd been this close, weeks since Blaine left Ohio and left Kurt alone in his apartment.

Blaine groaned, tracing his tongue over Kurt's teeth and licking against his tongue, coaxing them from Kurt's mouth into Blaine's, and then back to Kurt's. Kurt honestly couldn't help it, angling his hips so that Blaine settled between them perfectly. If it was morning wood or just that this was that arousing, and Kurt was leaning towards the latter, they were both getting hard. Kurt couldn't help the sounds he made, groaning and almost straight out whimpering while Blaine slowly started to roll his hips. It wasn't enough, not nearly.

Blaine reached down, panting open mouthed against Kurt's mouth as he reached down, fingers gripping Kurt's thigh hard enough to almost hurt, and hoisted the leg up. It was enough for Kurt to get the general idea, wrapping his leg up and over Blaine's hips, using it to drag him closer and harder. The new position wouldn't do much for Blaine, but it was doing the world for Kurt. He couldn't help it, what with Blaine panting into his mouth and every now and then darting his tongue to lick against the top of his mouth, and the friction of them moving together. He was coming before he knew what was happening, clenching his hands tight around Blaine's biceps, his hips jerking as he road out the orgasm.

Kurt was feeling that rush of emotion again, the one that he loosely calls love because he's definitely never felt it before. He could also feel something else, something more tangible. Something that was definitely Blaine's cock still pressed firmly against his thigh because Blaine hadn't come yet.

While pressing his mouth to Blaine's, he rolled them over, careful of the edges of the bed. He rubbed his thigh against Blaine, feeling him arch against him while the speed of the kiss picked up again. Instead of letting him rub against him, Kurt pressed one last kiss to Blaine's mouth before sliding down the bed, scratching his fingernails over the fabric of Blaine's shirt before tucking his fingers in the waistband of his pants.

"No use in the both of us coming in our pants. I can think of somewhere else for you to come." He pulled the pants down, careful to hook his fingers over the line of Blaine's boxers and pull those down as well. He wrapped his hand around the base of Blaine's cock, pumping it once or twice before sending him a wink and leaning down, breathing on the tip just a little at first. Blaine's hips were shifting, obviously torn between getting closer and just letting it happen, but Kurt took pity on him, flicking his tongue over the head of his cock twice before sinking his mouth over it as much as he could.

He couldn't help but watch Blaine, eyes closed and head tossing and turning on the pillow as if he couldn't exactly get comfortable, his arms stretched out, fingers tangled in Kurt's hair. Kurt would smirk at that, but as his mouth was busy, he started to hum while bobbing his head. Sliding one hand up, he pressed it on Blaine's lower stomach, under his shirt, and ran his fingers through the hair there. He could feel Blaine's muscles clenching, could tell by the stuttering of his shallow thrusts that he was close, but he slid up the length so that just to tip was in his mouth, flicking his tongue over the head and before he could even move back down, Blaine was groaning out a warning.

Kurt swallowed, turning his head to press a kiss to Blaine's thigh before moving up his body, pressing another kiss on the opposite hipbone before pulling his boxers and pants back up, smiling and he shimmied his way up so that he could rest his chin on his sternum.

"Not that I disapprove or anything, but was there as particular reason for that excursion?" Blaine reached up, running his fingers through Kurt's hair before pulling him up just the rest of the way to press their mouths together. Kurt pulled back, smiling lightly albeit confusedly, before rolling off of Blaine completely and wincing at the sensation in his boxers.

"We really have to start doing that naked or at least premeditated so that I don't end up like this every time." He was trying to dispel some of the tension he knew Blaine must be feeling, hoping a little humor would work. It had to work, at least a little, because Blaine smiled and rolled off of the bed to grab some clothes.

"Good to know I put you that far on edge." Kurt smirked, standing from the bed and grabbing his own clothes to get into.

"All day. I'm going to take care of this." He held up one finger, hoping that Blaine realized that they really did need to talk about this, before stepping into the bathroom to clean himself off and change clothes.

Blaine was sitting cross legged on the other bed, staring at the television although it was turned off. Kurt sat beside him, daring just to put his hand over Blaine's on his knee, and waited. He wasn't sure how to go about it, what questions to ask or what could trigger Blaine, but he knew they needed to talk. Thankfully it seemed Blaine was more than willing.

"I had gotten the text from you and started doing the dishes. There was a knock at the door, a girl was there. I'd never seen her before. The next thing I know, Drake is there with a gun and a few other people. I kept trying to call you, my phone was in my pocket but it turns out that he had some sort of signal jamming device so none of the calls went through. I don't know how long I was at the house before you showed up. Must have been a few hours." Kurt nodded, waiting for Blaine to continue, but there didn't seem to be anything else he wanted to divulge.

He didn't want to pry, but he knew that he had to. He had to ask because there were a few things missing.

"Blaine, how did you get injured?" Blaine reached up with one hand, first touching his elbow and then his temple, where the cut was scabbed over. He winced, although probably more at the memory than the pain it caused.

"This was right when you pulled in. Caught him off guard, pissed him off I guess, so he... what's the term? Pistol whipped me. That's right, he pistol whipped me. Hurt like a bitch." Kurt winced because he'd had that happen to him once or twice. If it wasn't enough force to knock you unconscious, for some reason it hurt worse.

"And your elbow?" Blaine rolled his shirt sleeve up, making Kurt realize that he had changed probably while Kurt had, looking at his elbow. It wasn't discolored or anything, so Kurt wasn't really sure what he was looking for. When he glanced up though, he saw the distance and the pain in Blaine's eyes, making Kurt move forward and wrap an arm around him.

"You don't have to-" Blaine was already shaking his head.

"The girl that was at my door? Drake brought me into a room, handed me a gun, and told me to shoot her. When I tried to step away, he grabbed my arm and wrenched it behind me. Said if I didn't, he would. That he never misses. I didn't have a choice Kurt, I knew that if I didn't shoot her, he'd kill her. I didn't want to, you have to realize that."

Kurt nodded, wrapping his arms even tighter around Blaine and bit at his lip, waiting. There was no way for Blaine, in all the duress he had been under, to have shot the girl between her eyes. He waited to hear the rest of the story and after a few deep breaths, Blaine continued.

"He had his hand over mine and I guess I was taking too long to decide because he pulled the trigger. Or, I guess... he made me pull the trigger. It shocked me and I pulled away from him, and my elbow dislocated. He popped it back into place for me."

Kurt nodded, his heart falling and taking residence somewhere around his knee caps. Drake had skipped over physical trauma and went straight for mental. Making someone shoot someone else was bad enough, but making them feel like they killed someone? Kurt's anger returned, half pointed at Drake for putting Blaine through that and half pointed at himself for letting Drake get away.

"Blaine, I want you to listen to me, and listen to me very closely. It is not your fault. What happened to her is tragic, and Drake will get what is coming to him for that, but it is not your fault. You said it yourself, if you didn't shoot her, he would have. And you didn't. You were going to and he forced you to pull the trigger and kill her. That does not make it your fault."

Blaine nodded, although Kurt wasn't 100% sure that he believed it. After a few moments of silence, Blaine spoke again.

"Did you... do you know who she was?" Kurt shook his head, because she looked vaguely familiar but he didn't recognize her.

"No. But I am going to find out who she was, I promise you." Blaine nodded again, this time a little more sure, before standing up from the bed. He offered his hand to Kurt, a gesture that made Kurt's heart beat pathetically faster because he was still waiting for Blaine to high tail it to the next state and stay there.

"We should head out of here. Where are we headed?"

Kurt let Blaine pull him up, squeezing his hand tightly before grabbing his bag and hoisting it over his shoulder.

"Back to Ohio. Still have some unfinished business to be handled."

He would have to explain to Blaine that whoever it was that was playing puppetmaster had made the call to tell him that Blaine had been kidnapped. Plus he should probably send Sam a message by now, tell him that he had gotten Blaine and they were safe. In the excitement of the night, he had completely forgotten. But as Kurt made his way down the hall and to the stairs, Blaine was right beside him and thread his fingers through Kurt's. It made him breathe a little easier, that Blaine was there and in one piece. Everything else was secondary to Blaine's safety right now. Everything else could wait.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Okay, it took me a while to get this chapter the way I wanted it. I go between really liking this chapter and not liking it at all... except that I do like it. I hope you like it as well.

So to clear up a couple of questions... the girl was _not _a glee club member or anyone else. She'll be explained in the next chapter. Although I make Stanley sound a little sketchy (or more so than normal), he's not a bad guy. Promise. Yes Drake disappeared, which means we will see him again at some point.

Thank you for reading this chapter and thank you to all of the people that have already reviewed or found me on Tumblr or randomly message me (on there or here) about this story. I'm just... so beyond flattered that you all seem to care so much about this story that I've created. Thank you all.


	8. Chapter 8, Blaine's POV

**No Man's Land**

He wasn't entirely sure which emotions were which just yet. His head was still swimming, partially from the blow he took and partially from everything that went on. Blaine was trying to keep calm, glancing at Kurt every now and then while they made their way to Ohio. His face was closed off, as if deep in thought, and Blaine could only imagine why. He had called Sam when they left the hotel to tell him that they were safe, on their way, but something Sam replied with made Kurt swear. He hadn't offered any explanation to Blaine, simply kept driving.

As they got closer to their destination, finally in the state of Ohio, Kurt turned to look at Blaine with a nod. This was what he had been waiting for, trading information. He had given all he had to Kurt already, now it was Kurt's turn to share.

"I'm surprised that you haven't asked how I knew you'd been kidnapped. The guy that's playing games with me, the guy from the phone? He called and told me that you'd been kidnapped. Swore that it wasn't him and for some reason, I believed him."

Blaine held a hand up to stop Kurt before he could continue.

"Do you think that this guy and Drake are connected somehow?" Kurt paused while he thought and shook his head, switching lanes to pass by a slow moving car.

"Probably not, but at this point, I'm not sure we should count anything out just yet. So far, he has gotten to you, my father, my friend Mercedes, and now to my step-brother. That's why Sam called, Finn left a voicemail on my phone about it. I just want this over with. I don't want anyone that I care about getting hurt."

Blaine reached forward, slowly at first, and let his fingers drag over Kurt's arm, down to his wrist and then enclosed his fingers around Kurt's hand.

"It's not your fault Kurt, none of it. Someone wants to fuck with your life, okay, but it doesn't make it your fault." Kurt smiled, squeezing Blaine's hand before returning it to the steering wheel. He felt like there was still a conversation to be had, although he couldn't even imagine what there was to talk about anymore. If there still was a conversation to be had, it wasn't one that he was going to be initiating.

It wasn't long before they were pulling up infront of a familiar apartment, with Kurt grabbing their bags and heading to the steps before Blaine could really figure out what was going on. He followed at a slower pace, casting a quick glance over his shoulder. Whoever was pulling the strings had to know where they were, especially if he knew that Blaine had been kidnapped. It was going to be a permanent thing, a little paranoia in the back of his mind, until all of this was fixed.

The door was still open when he reached the apartment and he stepped in, smiling lightly at Sam, who was sprawled out on the couch with the television on and his laptop on his stomach. It was cleaner, although he had helped Kurt with that before he left town. It looked more like someone actually lived there rather than just having someone use it as a storage facility.

"Good to see you in one piece Anderson. How's your head?" Blaine touched his temple and winced before shrugging.

"Tender, but I'll live." Kurt came out of the bedroom and flopped into one of the chairs against the wall. Blaine shifted from foot to foot before moving over to the other overstuffed chair and lowered himself down into it. With all of them sitting, Sam swung his legs off of the couch and, gripping onto the laptop so it wouldn't topple, fully turned so that he was sitting properly. After a moment he put the laptop on the coffee table infront of him.

"I'd say that we had time to let you two rest up, but... well, just listen to this voicemail."

Sam pulled Kurt's phone out of his pocket and punched in a few buttons, waiting a second before punching in a few more and hitting speaker.

"You have one missed message. First missed message. '_Hey man, it's Finn. I was hanging out with Puck and he told me to tell you that Margo or Margie Bingot or Ginbot or something said that she was looking for you? You know I'm bad with names. Also, dad said you went to New York to visit Blaine but I got the weirdest call from Rachel. So just call and let me know what's going on please? Talk to you later bro.' _To delete-"

Sam snapped the phone shut and leaned forward, placing it on the table as he lifted the computer back onto his lap and typed up a few things.

"Here's the kicker. I searched everywhere for anything like Margo or Margie or Maggie or Maddie or anything, couldn't find a damn thing. I even called Stanley and, load of help he was, said that he was busy but would look into it." Kurt sighed, leaning forward to place his elbows on his knees and then rest his head in his hands. Blaine wasn't sure what he was thinking, but he knew that there was something missing. A connection, somewhere.

"Sam, toss me my phone? And here, take your's." He fished Sam's phone out of his pocket, tossing it to him and then catching his as Sam threw it over. He pressed a few buttons, seemingly looking for something before pressing the center button and raising the phone, perssing it against his ear.

Sam mouthed something that Blaine missed and before Kurt could respond to him, he was responding to whoever answered the phone.

"Puck? Hey, it's Kurt. Listen, I got a call from- uh, yea I guess. Where? Shoot me a text with the address? Thanks. See you then." He snapped his phone shut and gave Blaine and Sam a look, keeping a good grip on the device.

"Puck wants me to meet him at his place. Said to bring Sam." His phone pinged in his hand and he opened it up, nodding as he read over it before snapping it shut and sliding it into his pocket.

"What do you think this is about?" Kurt glanced at Sam and shrugged, standing up as he did so.

"I don't know, but I'm not going to sit around doing nothing. Come on Blaine, he wants Sam and I, but I'm not leaving you by yourself. Guess we'll have to take Blaine's car, mine is still at the company."

They made their way to the door before Kurt asked them to wait and ran into the back room. Blaine glanced at Sam who shrugged and went ahead, taking the steps two at a time. When Kurt came back in, he was shoving a gun into his jacket pocket.

"Are you expecting trouble?" Kurt shook his head, locking the apartment door behind him and grabbing Blaine's elbow as they made their way down the steps.

"Best way not to have trouble is to always expect it."

They climbed into the car, with Sam calling he backseat. He was pulling things out of his own jacket pockets and when Blaine glanced back at him, he noticed that he had a gun and a knife on him. He briefly remembered the boyscout comments from the last... no. He wouldn't think about it. He refused to acknowledge that this might actually be a bigger deal. Drake was one thing, but this? Some guy playing with Kurt's life? He wouldn't let himself link that to when they both had hits out on them.

"Puck sounded really suspicious. Said he didn't want to talk on the phone, to bring you to his house to talk." Sam leaned forward so that he could see both Blaine and Kurt.

"You don't think there is a possibility... I mean, we didn't know that we were both in the company until we were paired up for that one assignment and you rarely get paired up in the company. What if Puck's like us?" Blaine cast a glance at Sam and then to Kurt. He didn't really know who Puck was, he had heard the name maybe once from Kurt when they were trading stories of high school, but could not for the life of him remember anything about him.

"If he is, he is. We know that Stanley's not trying to fuck us over, so we're good." Blaine bit his tongue for a moment before deciding to ask the question he was sure they had at least thought before.

"Can we trust Stanley?" Kurt shot a glance to Sam before shrugging.

"Honestly, I think so. He has no reason to want to fuck with us, he seems to be doing everything he can to help." Blaine nodded and leaned back, watching as they drove through a series of neighborhoods before pulling into the driveway of a small one story house. They all got out, with Blaine mumbling an apology to Sam as he unfolded himself from the back seat. It wasn't very accomodating it seemed.

The three of them made their way onto the porch, shooting each other one last look before Kurt pressed his finger against the doorbell. They waited for a moment before the door opened. A tan male with a mohawk stood infront of them, glancing first at Kurt and then to the other two, before shaking his head and pushing the door open more so they could step through.

Once in the living room, Puck motioned for them to sit down. He waited until everyone was seated before he leaned on the wall nearby.

"Kurt. Sam. And who I guess is Blaine Anderson. Heard about you from Finn. Thought it was about time Hummel got some. We were starting to worry about you." Kurt rolled his eyes, so Blaine assumed he wasn't being offensive. But the comment... it finally reminded him of what Kurt had mentioned about him a month ago. Puck was a football player that, prior to Glee club, used to pick on him relentlessly. Slushies and throwing him into the dumpsters. However they got past it, actually grew to be pretty close later in high school.

He wanted to frown, because this guy had helped make Kurt's high school years shit, but he held it back. If Puck hadn't contributed to the shitty years, Kurt never would have had the rage to join the company and they never would have met. Fuck, in a strange way, he might even need to thank Puck.

"As interesting as I'm sure this is, you said you wanted to talk? I want to know about the visitor you got." Puck nodded and then pushed off of the wall, glancing into the kitchen before moving to sit down on the couch beside Sam and across from Kurt and Blaine.

"I don't know all of what is going on, but I do know about your problem with whoever it is that's playing this phone tag game with you. And it wasn't my visitor." Kurt leaned forward, sucking in a breath through his clenched teeth before speaking.

"I honestly don't feel like listening to riddles right now Puckerman."

Puck held his hands up in surrender before standing up and moving to the wall, glancing into the kitchen and motioning for someone to join them. Blaine felt Kurt put his hand on his gun and his eyes grew wide, wondering what was about to happen. However the person to step around the door didn't look dangerous. Scratch that, the person looked _very_ dangerous, just not the type that required a gun.

The girl had dark hair pulled into a low ponytail and resting over her shoulder, a tight tshirt and a pair of disturbingly short shorts considering how cold it was outside. She cocked her head to look around at the people in the room and grinned.

"Santana? What in the..." The girl, named Santana apparently, moved further into the room and nodded to Puck before focusing her attention on Kurt.

"As much as I want to see how long it takes before your boyfriend here gets nervous with the questions I'm just dying to ask, I figure we should jump into business. I was approached by someone named Marcia Greenbet, said she was from a school and was looking for Kurt Hummel. Gave me her number." Kurt jumped in right away.

"Tell me you didn't call it." Santana rolled her eyes and held out a slip of paper that Blaine hadn't even noticed in her hands. She shot him a wink before going back into the story.

"Of course not. But I've heard from a little bird that this isn't the first time someone's been approached. Same little bird told me that this is a lot bigger than just a college." Kurt leaned back, watching the girl warily for a moment before leaning forward again.

"Does this bird have a name?" She crossed her arms over her chest and waited a moment before answering.

"Stanley Carlson." Sam stood up, his voice rising over Puck's who had grabbed his arm and was trying to get him to sit back down.

"What in the fucking fuck is going on here? Now!" Sam's yell caused everyone to drop silent, although Puck was still holding his arms. Santana looked a little rattled but she looked from Kurt to Sam quickly.

"Listen, you think you're the only one that found a different way out of this two bit town? I wasn't about to be stuck in Lima Heights for the rest of my godforsaken life and I did what any sane person would do. I took a job."

Blaine understood a second after Sam, because he slumped into his seat and Puck was able to back away. Santana was with the company. Kurt still didn't release the tension in his back though, still sitting rigid and staring up at her, his hand still resting close enough to his gun that he could get to it in a second.

And Santana was really not wearing enough clothes for her to even hide a weapon.

"You work for the company?" She rolled her eyes and gestured to herself.

"C'mon Hummel, think like a straight man and not a gay man for a second. It'll come to you." Blaine tilted his head, trying to figure it out. For what it was worth, Kurt seemed to be having just as much trouble figuring out what she meant as Blaine did. However it was passed over as Sam spoke up.

"Fucking shit, you're a distraction!" Santana made a loud dinging sound and blew a kiss at Sam, as a reward most likely.

"Right-o Sam-o. Guys, and some girls, get one look at this and they completely forget to lock a door or to not get shot in the back. I'm good at what I do."

Blaine watch Kurt rest his head in his hands for a second before standing up.

"I need to make this call, see if he's going to give me another hint as to whatever the fuck is going on, and then we're going to sit down and have a very long talk about what is and is not appropriate to spring on a person."

He pulled out his phone, told everyone to shut up, before dialing the number and putting it on speaker. It rang twice before a voice came through, sounding almost joyful to Blaine's ears.

"Ah, Kurt, I was wondering when you'd get around to calling me. I trust you and Blaine got out of everything okay." Blaine felt a cold chill run down his spine at the man's voice saying his name.

"Like you don't already know. You know everything, right?" Kurt's hand was clenched at his side. Sam looked thoughtful, listening to the message. Puck and Santana, for their part, looked a little apprehensive.

"Maybe so. I do know that you are toeing the line right now. Tsk tsk Kurt, bringing even more people into this, just tsk tsk."

Kurt's hand unclenched and he shot a look to Santana and Puck, shaking his head minutely.

"I didn't bring anyone else into this. You're the one going after my friends and fam-" The voice came back through, harsh this time.

"I'm not going after your loved ones, not yet at least! All I've done is talk, that's all. I even told you that your boytoy had beend abducted, now wasn't that nice of me? And you have brought more people into this. A Noah Puckerman and a Santana Lopez? They aren't with you right this second?"

Puck swore under his breath, moving to the front window and peeking out of it. Santana looked shaken for the first time, glancing at Puck and then Sam, finally at Kurt. Blaine could imagine what she felt. Some faceless voice on the phone knew way too much.

"They don't have anything to do with this so-"

"You brought them into this Kurt, you can take them out of it. As much fun as I'm having with you, it seems the climax is coming. Tell me Kurt, have you ever had to look into someone's eyes that you loved, that trusted you, and tell them that it would be okay when you knew it probably wouldn't be?"

Blaine's breath caught in his lungs as Kurt's eyes slipped to Blaine before closing, letting out a breath. He was saved from answering by the voice coming through once more, softer this time.

"Think it through Kurt, I'm sure you'll figure out just what is going on. If you do figure it out, you'll know where to find me." The voice, soft and final, cut off as the dialtone came through.

Blaine stood up quickly, grabbing Kurt's phone from his hand before he could throw it and grabbed onto Kurt's arm. He was shaking, his hands clenching and unclenching sporatically, and it was worrying Blaine. He'd never seen Kurt like this before, so angry. So scared.

"Kurt? Kurt, listen to me, we're going to figure this out. Listen to me okay? We're going to figure it out. He's leaving the next move to you, we can figure this out." Kurt nodded, frantically at first and then softer. He glanced up Blaine, grasping his chin and pulling him forward to kiss him firmly before pulling back to just a breath away.

"Thank you." He whispered against Blaine's lips before turning around to face Puck and Santana, Sam moving to stand right behind Kurt and Blaine.

"So it looks like you two are involved now. We need help with this, to end it, before anyone gets hurt. If I leave, I don't think he'd do anything to you two. This is about me for now. It's up to you."

The pair looked at each other, shrugging, before turning back. Puck was the first to speak.

"I've got your back man. I'm in." Santana seemed a little more hesitant in her response.

"I'll do what I can." Blaine reached down to grasp Kurt's hand and squeezed hard.

He didn't know what was going on. This guy seemed to be everywhere at once, knew everything, and definitely had it out for Kurt. He had said that the climax was coming. With one more glance to Kurt, Blaine decided that no matter the end, he'd stand with Kurt. And hopefully, if everything did go to hell, he'd have enough time to tell Kurt that he loved him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **So so so sorry it's taken me so long to update. If you follow me on tumblr, you'll know that I've had a pretty bad past two weeks, and then I got sucked into writing Genie!Klaine. One thing after another I'm afraid. However, here you go, the slightly-too-long-awaited-for chapter eight. I really enjoyed writing this chapter and it's setting up for the upcoming, well, as the voice said, climax.

Also, introducing two not-so-new characters. I'm worried about how Puck and Santana are going to come across, but I hope you like them. Their parts are going to be small, but they'll be there.

I'm not sure how many chapters are left. I know what all is going to happen, I just have to get it there. Hope you enjoyed it though.


	9. Chapter 9, Kurt's POV

**No Man's Land**

Since there was almost nothing that they could do yet, Kurt found himself telling Santana and Puck to lay low and that he'd call them if anything came up that they could help with. They'd both seemed eager enough to help, despite Santana's earlier hesitancy, but Kurt wasn't going to hold that against her. No matter what her job was with the company, this was different. This was completely off the books and completely more dangerous than she needed to be involved in. And if he could help it, neither of them would be too involved.

Sam and Blaine stayed quiet, although Sam was typing awkwardly fast on his phone from the backseat, while Kurt drove them back to the apartment. Kurt was trying to figure out a plan, figure out a way to keep everyone safe. This wasn't a damsel in distress thought, this was Kurt wanting no one to get hurt because of him.

Blaine was keeping quiet, tapping his fingers against his legs and then smoothing them out before resuming the tapping. The part of Kurt that wanted to ask if he was okay, what he was thinking, was quelled by the part of him that just wanted to get the three of them back to his apartment as soon as possible. To figure this thing out together, like Blaine had said they would.

It amazed him how easily Blaine had calmed him down earlier. But he knew he shouldn't be amazed because yea, he cared for Blaine and it was obvious that Blaine cared for him.

Pulling into the apartment, Kurt had already half decided what his next step would be. All he needed to do was to run it by Sam, get what he needed, and sneak out of the apartment before Blaine noticed. He didn't want to run away with his tail between his legs, but that's what it felt like he was doing. Blaine would kick and scream and probably draw blood if Kurt even eluded to his plan, but he had to do what was for the best.

Sam went straight for his laptop when they reached the apartment, barely making a sound as he grabbed up the device to boot it up. Blaine slumped on the couch, toeing his shoes off and throwing an arm over his eyes. He'd had a hard few days, Kurt knew how it felt. Instead of doing something productive, Kurt walked into his bedroom and looked around.

"I've seen that look before. What are you thinking of doing?" Kurt turned around, raising his eyebrow at Sam who was supporting a laptop while leaning against the doorjam. After motioning him to close the door, Kurt slumped onto his bed and looked at his feet.

"I'm thinking of going somewhere quiet, somewhere nondescript. Maybe not yet. If this psychopath is right and there is something coming, I don't want anyone to get in the middle. It's going to be me and him."

Sam shook his head, balancing his laptop on his knees as he sat beside Kurt. At first he didn't say anything and then he laughed.

"You know, it's hilarious that you think that'll work. That Blaine will let you out of his sight. But even then, do you really think it's going to be just you and him? He's already proved he has too many people at his disposal, all willing to do his dirty work. If you're going against an army, shouldn't you have your own?"

Flopping down on his back, although willing to deny with his dying breath that he flops anywhere, Kurt shook his head.

"As logical as that sounds, do you really... we don't have an army Sam. You and I are the only ones with any training, Santana is a trained distraction, Puck could probably handle himself in a fight but against a gun?"

Kurt watched as Sam's back tensed, biting his lip as he waited. There was definitely something on his mind, something he didn't seem to want to say, except that it was something he definitely did want to say. He waited, wondering if he was going to have to ask, because whatever it was probably was going to require a conversation. A conversation that Kurt could already tell he wasn't going to like.

Just as he opened his mouth to tell Sam to spill whatever he was holding back, Sam turned to glance at him, the scars on his face tight around his mouth.

"And Blaine? How many times are you going to toss him to the wolves before figuring out that he loves you man?" Kurt blinked up at him, wondering just how many times Sam thought he had thrown him to the wolves to warrant that statement, but then caught up with the second part of it.

"Tossing that L word around pretty easily, aren't we Sam?" Except that Kurt knew he wasn't, because that was one of those words that Sam would rather stab himself in the neck repeatedly rather than say without meaning, so it had to mean something.

"Some advice man? Get off your fucking high horse and join the rest of us lowly people and let us figure this shit out together." With that, Sam snapped the laptop shut and moved to the door, opening and closing it quietly despite the heat in his words.

Still turning his plan over in his head, Kurt sat up and looked around his bedroom. There were more personal items in there than before, pictures of family and friends, along with his high school and college diplomas. People go through their lives without realizing that the person sitting next to them in their English lab was tormented and therefore would become a tormentor. Families and friends could smile at someone over a coffee or breakfast and never know just what someone was going through. It was life, everyone kept secrets. Kurt's was just a lot heavier than everyone else's.

He packed a small bag, making sure there were clothes and weapons, before tossing it over his shoulder and glancing around once more. It would only be for a little while, just until this was settled. He could do this.

Stepping into the living room however told him differently. Blaine was still lying prone on the couch, an arm still tossed over his eyes and possibly even asleep. Sam was sitting on one of the chairs on the other side, facing Kurt, and frowning. Whether he was frowning at Kurt or at the screen, he wasn't sure, but it didn't matter. He made sure that Blaine's keys were still in his pocket, frowning at the fact that he was stealing his car once again, but shook it off and made his way to the front door. Without another glance, he slipped through it and made his way to the car.

From the apartment, he drove towards a series of bungalows that were about an hour away. He'd stayed there once or twice before, between jobs and when he just needed to get away from Lima. They were nice and had one of his aliases on record so he felt marginally safer there. He'd call Sam later, not to tell him where he was but to tell him what to do. To get Blaine to his parents house and stay there with them, protection. He'd have Santana and Puck call an impromptu Glee club reunion, at his house if that's what it took, but he'd have all of his family and friends safe if it was possible.

Reaching the bungalows, he tried to ignore the fact that his phone had been going off constantly since he'd left Lima. He turned the volume off, leaving the phone in his car with his bag until he knew which one he'd be staying in. The receptionist smiled at him, typing in the information that he gave her and sending him along after her paid her.

He'd stayed in Number Seven before, once or twice, but he still took a quick look around to get a feel for the place before allowing himself to step in it. He unpacked his bag as much as he felt comfortable doing, locking all of the other doors and windows and setting up next to the provided desk top computer. That's why he chose these bungalows, they came with their own computers. He'd had to leave his in the living room, or else he would have drawn attention to himself, and he needed to do some research.

Forty minutes into his own research, which wasn't going very well sadly, he bit the bullet and opened his phone. There were more missed calls than texts but he opened the text messages first. Sam threatening him, asking him what he thought he was doing, telling him to come back. Blaine asking him why Sam was cussing, where he had gone, when he was coming back... if he was coming back.

He swore under his breath, dialing Sam's number with a frown. That last one had definitely felt a little more despondent than Kurt could handle. He thought that Sam would tell Blaine what was going on so that he wouldn't worry but it seemed as if he was wrong.

"What the fuck is your problem Hummel?" Kurt winced, the full force of Sam's anger not having been placed on him like this before. Sam was usually such an easy going guy, the company not having done much besides dimming that, but there was anger there that Kurt hadn't seen before.

"I told you that-"

"I know what you told me, for fuck's sake. Where are you?" Kurt shook his head, then rolled his eyes because Sam couldn't see him.

"Listen, just... why didn't you tell Blaine where I was?" Sam laughed, followed by a series of muted curses, along with another voice asking if Sam was okay. That other voice was definitely Blaine.

"I'm not getting in the middle of this Kurt. And he's a little busy right now, so you're going to have to wait." Kurt pushed out of his chair and paced the small room.

"Is something going on? What's going on Sam?" Why the fuck had he left? What the fuck had he been thinking? Fuck it, he hadn't been thinking.

"Nothing's going on Kurt. Everything's fine." His voice had taking on a calming quality, probably realizing that Kurt was freaking out thinking about all of the things that could be going wrong.

"Sam, just-" There was a sound, definitely the sound of a car horn, and Kurt raised an eyebrow. He had Blaine's car, so what the hell was-

"Listen Kurt, I can't talk right now, Blaine's looking like a lost puppy. Don't worry about us, since you obviously have everything figured out."

He hung up, and when Kurt dialed back, it went straight to voicemail. He tossed his phone against the bed and then sat back down infront of the computer. He had been searching all of the names, trying to find a link, but every time he found what could be a link, it never carried through all four of them.

He'd have to call Stanley, try to get whatever information he could on the people. Although he knew that Sam had already gone that route. He really should have asked him what he had found first. Sam was ten times better at this part than he was. Sam was the preparation and Kurt was, excuse the pun, the execution. That's how it had always been, their strong suits, but it seemed to be pointless now.

Thirty minutes later, there was a knock in the bungalow door that caused Kurt to reach for his gun. The staff never bothered their customers, and it was private property so no one was going door to door to sell cookies. If there was someone at the door, it was a personal call. He fingered his gun holding it low and to the side so that he could peer through the window, but there didn't seem to be anything except... a car, parked about two bungalows down that Kurt hadn't seen when he had pulled in.

He moved to the door, taking a deep breath, before opening it just a little, keeping his gun poised to be used if needed. However at seeing who was behind the door, he almost dropped the gun.

"Blaine? What... how did you..." Blaine pushed the door open, waving to the car who flicked their lights... Sam. Kurt flipped off the car, who flicked their lights once more, before shutting the door.

"Sam was tracking your phone. Once he got your position, we went to the company air strip to get your car back. Sam couldn't find the keys so he hotwired it. We found the keys afterwards, but..." He shrugged, looking around the bungalow at what was presented to him. Weapons were on the bed, the computer was running loudly with what didn't look like a Google search churning up finds every few seconds.

"Why'd you run?" Kurt shook his head and took a step towards Blaine who held a hand out, fending him off. He didn't admit to how much that hurt, simply took another deep breath before explaining.

"This guy is going after my family to get to me, so I figured I'd take myself out of the equation. Then he'd have to come straight to me instead of going to everyone else. I'm trying not to get anyone hurt here Blaine. My family, my friends, you."

Blaine scoffed, actually scoffed, before crossing his arms over his chest.

"I don't know if it escaped you, but you've never been around when this guy had one of his goons show up. You were in another state when he came to me, to your father, to Mercedes, even to Santana. So who do you think you're protecting if you're not around? That's like Christmas to a person that's been preying on your friends and family when you're _not around_. You're giving this prick what he wants Kurt, you're not hurting him."

Kurt's jaw unhinged a bit as it dropped, staring at a very seething Blaine. His arms had come out, gesturing wildly around the room even though the bungalow had nothing to do with the conversation. Nervous habit perhaps.

"I wasn't thinking, okay? Is that what you want to hear? All I wanted to do was to protect the people that I love and I didn't fucking _think_. I'm sorry. Okay? Okay?" Blaine shrunk back and Kurt winced, realizing that he still had the gun in his hand. He switched the safety on before tossing it onto the bed, slipping forward and grabbing Blaine's arm. He let out a small breath when Blaine actually allowed him to touch him.

"Please, just... I made a mistake. I'm sorry. I'm an idiot, I fucked up, I'm sorry, is there anythi-" Despite the seriousness of the situation, Kurt couldn't help but smile as Blaine stopped his rant by leaning up and pressing his lips to his tightly. After a moment, it turned soft and Blaine reached up to trace his fingers over Kurt's jawline before pulling back.

"You do realize that this is a relationship, right? That what happens to you, happens to me. In this instance, kind of literally, but still. You can't run away from this Kurt, and neither can you run away from me. I'm sneaky and Sam likes me more than he lets on and will do things like hack into your cell phone so that we can find you."

Kurt smiled, not putting that past Sam at all, and leaned forward himself to press his lips against the corner of Blaine's mouth before moving to gather his things. He barely got a step away before Blaine grabbed his arm again, pulling him backwards until their legs bumped against the bed and they fell down on it. Kurt tried to move the gun out from Blaine but he was having none of it, simply slithering up with bed with Kurt still on top of him, their mouths fusing together when they got comfortable.

Kurt gave a halfhearted roll so that they were on their sides, sneaking his hand between them to press against Blaine's stomach and let his other pull his head closer, smiling into the kiss. Blaine made a noise before flicking his tongue out, sliding it over Kurt's lips but when he opened his mouth, Blaine simply coaxed Kurt's tongue into his own mouth. It was a slow, comforting kiss, and despite their position, it wasn't sexual. He'd missed this, never really had it before Blaine, but he had missed it. No pressure, no ulterior motives, just being together.

When they finally stepped into the parking lot a little while later, Kurt wincing into the sunlight, he noticed that the car- his car rather- was gone.

"Sam said it was up to me to get you back to Lima. I'll drive." He reached into Kurt's pocket, smiling as he pulled the keys out, and moved to the driver door of the car he hadn't driven in a while.

Kurt stayed silent in the passenger seat, flicking through the papers he had written onto in the bungalow. Every little connection between each person, although none of them connected everyone together. People and places and times and dates, but nothing seemed to fit. This guy had to have an angle. It didn't seem like he was using these people for the hell of it, there was something there.

"Smoke is going to be pouring out of your ears soon. What's are you thinking?" Kurt glanced to Blaine who, despite having just spoken, hadn't torn his eyes from the road yet.

"I'm just trying to find the connection, trying to figure out who this guy is and what he wants. Every time I get a step closer, I feel like I'm flung back three more steps." Without taking his eyes off the road, Blaine reached over to cover one of Kurt's hands for a brief moment, squeezing it before returning his hand to the wheel.

"I've said this a few times, but I think we're missing something. Something small maybe. There has to be something that we're overlooking."

They were silent for the rest of the drive, each trying to figure out what they were missing. It was knawing at Kurt, going over the words that the man had spoken a hundred times to see if he missed something. The man wanted Kurt to pay for something, he was bringing his family and friends into it. Then there was how he asked if Kurt had ever looked into the eyes of a loved one and told them that it would be okay when it wouldn't. He remembered looking at Blaine, having a feeling that he was still going to be brought into this somehow. It was ugly, but it was the truth. Whatever this guy wanted, it didn't just have to do with Kurt now. It had to do with Blaine.

He wondered if Blaine had made that connection yet, and if not, would he still stay by his side when he did?

At the apartment, Sam was sitting on the couch with the two laptops open infront of him, glaring at Kurt when he stepped through the door.

"I won't ask what took so long. I'll just say that if you ever pull that stunt again, I'm going to break both of your legs." Kurt raised an eyebrow but didn't question it, simply shook his head and deposited his bag against the television stand.

"Did you find anything out before I left?" Sam raised an eyebrow, rolling his eyes as he started tapping on his laptop, glancing at Kurt's as he did so.

"Not much. Every time I run voice recognition on the phone calls, I come up with the same damn thing. He's talking through a distorter. It's why the pitch changes. I've tried to run it back through, but none of the programs I've found can strip the distorter without some reference and we just don't have enough to do it yet."

Kurt nodded and sat down in a chair, smiling as Blaine sat in the one next to him.

"Okay, so what does that leave?" Kurt started to recite the phone calls, even the one where the man had told him Blaine had been kidnapped, but he noticed Blaine was staying quiet, staring at his hands.

Sam was in the middle of asking him something when Blaine cut him off.

"Prothero!" Eyebrows drawn, Kurt looked up, briefly wondering if that was some sort of exclamation like "eureka!" or something.

"Prothero was the name of the university. I mean, the fake university. Anyways, it's probably not important but, I haven't been able to remember the name of it until now."

Kurt shrugged, telling Sam to type it in and see what comes up. While he was doing that, Kurt leaned over, having to hoist himself up a bit to get over the high arm of the chair, to grab Blaine's hand. He was going to say something comforting, since Blaine had seemed so excited to remember the name and was now looking a little put out, but Sam interrupted them this time.

"Theo Rorp? That name mean anything to you Kurt?" Kurt thought about it, trying to go through every name of every person he'd ever met.

"Maybe? Why?"

"It's an anagram for Prothero. Or well, Prothero is an anagram for Theo Rorp. He's a business guy that does security. It's the only thing that I'm finding that sticks out."

Kurt and Blaine both moved over to the computer, looking at the pages.

"Is there a picture for him?" Sam shook his head, typing something up on Kurt's laptop and letting it run.

"Not on here no, but I'm doing a background sear- oh. Says he has a sister named Amanda Rorp that was involved in some huge insurance and security scandal about a year back. She retracted her statement about the whole thing after the men she had accused as manipulating her had been mysteriously killed. No one's seen or heard from her sense."

Kurt felt his chest tighten as he looked at the picture of Amanda Rorp, a girl about eighteen in the picture with blonde hair pulled on top of her head and smiling. She hadn't been smiling the one time he met her.

"I think I just figured out what this is all about. And if I'm right, we might be having a lot of problems soon."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I'm so sorry it's taken so long to get this out. If you follow me on tumblr, you know what's going on. For those of you that aren't on that site, here's the deal. I had surgery and then had to stay in the hospital for a few extra days. Following that, I had a stomach bug (I get sick a lot) and didn't get on my laptop. However I'm healthy again so, yay, I'm back.

This chapter gives way to two plot lines. One is the actual relationship plotline which shows that Blaine is not going anywhere, no matter if it's for his own good. The second is the big reveal of the puppetmaster! Theo Rorp is the name. More will be explained about him, as well as Kurt's role with his sister, in the next chapter.

I haven't said it yet, but this story is going to be shorter chapter-wise than STK. I'll let you know as soon as I know more, I promise! Thank you for reading, let me know what you thought!


	10. Chapter 10, Blaine's POV

_Warning: _Scenes of sexual nature.

**No Man's Land**

Blaine had to admit that Kurt's admission was less than comforting. Kurt was pacing back and forth, had been since he had claimed to know what was going on, and seemed content to ignore both Sam and Blaine's attempts at conversation. Not that Blaine could blame him, if this was hitting the fever pitch. Sam was doing something impressive with the laptops, most likely trying to figure out what it was that Kurt wasn't telling them, all the while casting surreptitious looks to Kurt.

"Amanda Rorp disappeared after her accusers were killed, but she disappeared on her own terms. That had nothing to do with me. The only thing I participated in was the killing of her accusers, per the request of the company they worked for. I met her once, through Theo. He was my safety mark, the person that I introduced myself to in order to get to the others."

Watching Kurt pace around the room while he tried to explain what was going on was making Blaine's head spin, making it hard for him to focus. Kurt's voice was also wavering, probably unable to fully comprehend the fact that this was hitting the boiling point. This is what it had been working towards the past few days.

"So you went through Theo to get to Amanda's manipulators. You did your job and you got out, why is he fucking with you now?" Kurt shook his head, staring at the wall as if he couldn't even see it.

"I don't know." Maybe it was the way he said it, or just the fact that he refused to meet their eyes, but Blaine had a feeling that Kurt was lying. A glance to Sam said that he looked to be agreeing, although he didn't say anything. If there was something that Kurt wasn't telling them, they would have to deal with it later. If it was important, he'd realize that he had to tell them.

"He said, in the last phone call, that if you figured out who he is, you'd know where to find him." Kurt turned to look at Sam as he spoke, nodding lightly as he did so.

"There was this strip of road, near an abandoned bus station, a few hours away from here. That's where I'd arranged the meet up with Theo in the first place. It's back in rotation now though, they fixed it up and has it up and running once again. It'll be there."

They seemed to spring into motion at the same time, with Sam shutting one of the laptops while Kurt went into his room, leaving Blaine to simply pace the room a bit. Sam stood up after a moment, hoisting his bag that Blaine hadn't even seen him pack anything into over his shoulder, and gave him a hard look before smiling lightly, the expression not making it to his eyes.

"I'm going to make myself scarce for two hours. We don't know what's going to happen next, so... take the time you have. I'll call before I show up." He grabbed Kurt's keys and snuck out through the living room door, the noise barely making it to Blaine's ears over the rushing that was there.

He wanted nothing more than to go into Kurt's bedroom and throw him down onto his bed, properly ravish him. As always, it boiled down to another time when they might not have another chance to do this. But that was exactly why he didn't want to do it. It was too much, too much pressure. He loved Kurt- had finally admitted it to himself and was ready to admit it to Kurt- but there was still a lot left on the sidelines. They hadn't had sex yet, not really. It was the one thing that they both seemed to be making a conscience decision to hold off on.

But with everything going on, he was actually very okay with not holding off on it anymore.

As he slipped into Kurt's room, he saw the other man kneeling with his fingers pressed into his eye sockets, his bag on the bed and spread open. There were a few weapons on top of the clothes, undoubtedly with more underneath. Shutting the door behind him, although Sam was gone and therefore he didn't need to, Blaine tried to calm himself down. Kurt might not even want to have sex, least of all right now.

He sat on the bed, pushing Kurt's bag away, and taking Kurt's hand in his, pulling it away from his face.

"You need to stop letting this weigh on you Kurt. I know that you take it all onto yourself and while I appreciate the sentiment, you have to realize that this isn't just going to go away by burying yourself in guilt. Whatever is going on, we're going to figure it out together. I promise." Kurt sighed, pushing himself onto the bed and not even wincing when it caused his bag to fall onto the floor. He simply pushed and pulled until the two of them were sprawled side by side on the bed, with Kurt facing Blaine a little, trailing his fingers over Blaine's stomach.

"I don't know if I could have gone through this without you Blaine." With Kurt's fingers tickling his stomach, Blaine couldn't help the shakey laugh that he let out at that.

"I don't know about that, you did pretty well before I came along." It might have been the wrong thing to say, by the reaction that Kurt gave. After a moment though, he shook it off and smiled, his eyes darting to the door before he leaned up to press his lips to Blaine's.

Blaine took the moment to roll over onto Kurt, pressing his weight against him, pressing him into the bed. He smoothed his hand up Kurt's side, tucking it under his neck to angle his head so that he could deepen the kiss. It was every bit as casual as the kiss from the bungalow had been, but Blaine didn't want to waste the time. They had two hours without any interruptions, he wanted to make the best of them.

As he moved to cover Kurt completely, slotting their hips together and having to pull his mouth away when their erections brushed, biting his lip to keep his groan in. Kurt was already panting beneath him, struggling to keep his hips still against Blaine's.

"We can't... oh fuck... we can't... Sam is-" Blaine bent down once more, quieting Kurt with a harsh press of lips, nipping at his bottom lip as he did so.

"Sam is making himself scarce. We have two hours." Kurt's eyes widened and Blaine quickly opened his mouth, to reassure Kurt that he wasn't expecting anything and fuck this might have been a bad idea, but Kurt surged up, freeing the hand that had been stuck between them to tangle in Blaine's curls.

"Fuck. Yes." His words were panted against Blaine's mouth, who took that to be the best of encouragement to reach down and angle Kurt's hip, fisting in the material of his jeans as much as he could so that they could feel every inch of each other.

It became a game of "will they or won't they" as they took turns skimming their fingers over the vital areas, Blaine shamelessly rubbing himself against Kurt as much as he could in their position. It wasn't until Kurt started to struggle underneath Blaine to get his shirt off that he'd admit that something, maybe not everything, was going to happen. They were not going to waste time, not in the least.

Even though he had more important things in mind, like getting Kurt and his own pants off, he couldn't help but bend his head and bite down on the skin that Kurt revealed by pulling his shirt off. He kissed the marks when he pulled away, feeling a little brazen, before sliding down Kurt's body to fumble with the buttons and zipper of his pants. Before he could do anything about Kurt's newly nude status, throwing his pants and boxers off of the bed, Kurt flipped them so that he had pinned Blaine down, running his tongue over Blaine's lips before shredding him of his clothes, with a lot less grace than Blaine had done for Kurt.

Blaine's hands automatically went to Kurt's hair as he lowered his head to his groin, pressing a few light kisses to the head of his cock before taking it into his mouth. He kept running his fingers through Kurt's hair, grasping it tightly at the nape and then releasing it after a second, biting his bottom lip in order to keep his moans from getting louder. Kurt had mentioned that he enjoyed listening to Blaine's sounds but that he liked it when Blaine tried to keep them back, so that Kurt could see how long it took him to get Blaine to break.

"Fuck, Kurt... close. So close." Kurt nodded, a feat with Blaine's dick in his mouth, before sliding a finger into his mouth along with Blaine, pressing along the length while getting the digit slick. Once he was satisfied, he withdrew it and nudged Blaine's legs further apart, using the finger to tease his entrance before pushing it in to the first knuckle. Blaine wasn't sure if he should thrust back onto the finger or forward into the wet heat of Kurt's mouth, so he did both, groans and curses slipping from his mouth as every time he thrust backwards, the finger slipped more in until Blaine could feel Kurt's palm pressed against the curve of his ass.

"More. God more please." Kurt stilled, eyeing Blaine for a brief moment before pulling off of and out of Blaine- neither were going to admit the sound that Blaine made at the loss- before rummaging around in his nightstand. He pulled the lube out, with a short sleeve of condoms with it, and kneeled beside of Blaine in silence for a moment.

"I'm only going to ask this once. Are you sure?" The tilt of his head, the way his fingers were rubbing lightly on Blaine's thigh, told Blaine that if he said no, they wouldn't. He nodded, leaning up to capture Kurt's mouth and position them so that Kurt was leaning against the headboard and Blaine was straddling his legs, their cocks rubbing between them.

"I need you in me and soon." Kurt laughed, tinged with a little too much nerves, before uncapping the lube and getting his first two fingers slicked up, letting Blaine's hand guide him under him to his hole. The angle was going to be awkward, but it would do.

Slipping both of them in at once was probably a bad decision, but Blaine couldn't bring himself to complain. Once they were in there, Blaine was finding it hard to do more than moan and roll his hips, trying to take more of them. Every once and a while, Kurt would place his free hand on Blaine's hip to still him, before letting him continue his movements. It didn't hurt that Blaine was swearing up a storm.

"Kurt, I understand the importance of foreplay, but this is ridiculous." Without breaking stride, Kurt laughed, twisting his fingers at just the right angle to hit Blaine's prostate, making the older man groan and push down even more onto the fingers.

"Just want you completely ready for me." He opened his fingers, stretching Blaine, who was back to biting his lip and trying to get more out of the feeling.

"I know it's been a while since I've done this, but I can handle it." Blaine gasped as Kurt pushed his fingers tight against Blaine's prostate, having him writhing on top of him for a moment before resuming the thrusting. After a moment, he pulled his hand out of Blaine, kissing his jaw and neck to keep him from complaining, and quickly coated up three fingers this time.

"What, it's been a while since you've done this?" At this, he quickly thrust in the first two fingers and gave a few quick openings and closings before adding the third finger.

"No, not. This. Jesus Christ, would you please keep moving? Fuck. I meant sex. I do this often enough... fuck, yes, there." There was no wiping Kurt's smile from his face, not that Blaine really wanted to, but he was seconds from begging like a dying man and he didn't even give a shit.

Kurt's voice dropped into the scratchy cadence it usually took during sex.

"When was the last time?" Blaine groaned, remembering that voice from various phone sex escapades since he left Ohio the first time to go back to New York. He wouldn't put it past Kurt to make him detail his last time fingering himself.

When Blaine opened his mouth to answer, Kurt twisted the fingers inside of him to rub against Blaine's prostate again and his words trailed off before he remembered what he had been saying.

"Nnngh, the night before Sam showed up in New York." Kurt nodded, keeping up the slow thrust with his fingers while leaning up, capturing Blaine's mouth with his and matching the thrust of his fingers with his tongue.

Properly distracted, Blaine didn't understand what Kurt was doing with his hand until he felt the cool substance on his finger. Kurt had used his free hand to smear some of the lube onto Blaine's pointer finger. When Blaine moved it down, thinking Kurt wanted the same thing, Kurt made a noise in the back of his throat and moved their hands to where Kurt's fingers had stilled inside of Blaine. The mere thought made him harder than before, precome leaking from the tip. It occured to him then that he hadn't even touched himself or Kurt since this has begun.

While Blaine let Kurt guide his finger alongside his three, wincing a little at the stretch but then groaning into the pleasure that came with it, he wrapped his freehand around their cocks between them and gave them a few cursory pumps. His finger kept getting curled up with Kurt's, who was dictating the speed to match Blaine's hand on the cocks, and it was almost too much.

"Fuck, I'm ready, come on." Placing a few open mouth kisses to his neck, Kurt pulled his fingers out, while Blaine kept his finger in and thrusting, so that he could slide the condom up, dripping a generous amount of lube onto it. He didn't want this to be interrupted by anything, but especially not discomfort. Hands on Blaine's hips, he pulled him forward and then let Blaine do the rest. He lowered himself until Kurt's tip entered him, breathing through it as he slid down inch by inch, mouth moving in soundless words.

Once he was fully seated on Kurt, he put a steadying hand on Kurt's stomach. It wouldn't take long for the burn to subside, but he waited with eyes closed, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. He didn't open his eyes until Kurt's hands framed his face, pulling him forward for a kiss.

"You have no idea how gorgeous you look like this." It was all the encouragement that Blaine needed, rolling his hips experimentally before deciding that yes, he was ready. He lifted himself slowly, forcing himself down hard. Once he set up the rhythm, he pulled at Kurt's hips, trying to get him to move.

With Kurt meeting him on the downwards thrust, moving forward to capture Blaine's mouth in something that resembled kissing, Blaine was pretty sure that he wasn't going to last long. He could feel his heartbeat throbbing in his head, his fingers digging into Kurt's ribs and bicep, while Kurt had one hand on Blaine's hip and the other stroking his cock.

Kurt nodded, even though nothing had been said, before pulling out and flipping them over once again. Once Blaine was on his back, Kurt moved down to lift his leg onto his hip before guiding himself back into him. Pressing a kiss to Blaine's shoulder, he started to move, guiding Blaine's other leg onto his hips and letting them cross behind his back as he thrust in hard.

There was a lot of noise, the bed groaning under their minstrations and their collected groans and curses, but Blaine could still only really hear his heart pounding in his head. His mouth fell open, the words pouring out of his mouth while he grappled at Kurt's back and neck, trying to pull him closer.

"I love you, I love you, god Kurt I love you, fuck I love you." It became a chant, the only thing keeping him grounded as he pushed his body against Kurt's. It seemed to push Kurt over, groaning through his orgasm as he continued to stroke Blaine's cock until Blaine followed.

They stayed like that for a minute, chest to chest with Kurt still buried inside of Blaine, pressing kisses to each other's faces and necks and shoulders.

"Did you mean it?" Blaine looked up, eyes a little hazy but a slow smile on his lips even so.

"Yes, I did. Have for a while, to be honest. If that's okay with you?" Kurt nodded, hiding a smile by pressing his mouth to Blaine's neck.

"I'm not ready to say it myself, but I feel it. And if you perhaps want to say it a hundred times a day, I definitely wouldn't mind." Blaine laughed, wrapping his arms tightly around Kurt and pressing a kiss to the top of his head, which was the only part of him he could reach.

After they were done with their post-coital cuddling, which was definitely what they were doing, they moved to the shower to clean each other off. Kurt was cheeky enough to push his fingers back inside of Blaine, on the pretense of cleaning him out, but made no pretense of what his true intentions were afterwards. He rubbed against the bundle of nerves inside of Blaine, watching with awe as Blaine's cock grew hard and blood red again as he worked him towards a second climax.

"You're a fucking tease." Blaine knew that Kurt was grinning, even though he was having trouble making his eyes focus, and it was confirmed as Kurt laughed.

"I'm not teasing you in the least Blaine. I fully intend on letting... no, making... you come." Blaine groaned loudly, letting his head thunk against the wall of the shower. Kurt was moving his fingers slowly, still rubbing that bundle of nerves, and every time that Blaine reached for his cock, Kurt would push his hand away.

"Nuh-uh, you're going to come just from my fingers inside of you." The thought alone was enough to make Blaine come, but the feeling of Kurt's fingers there, the authority in Kurt's voice that he rarely used with Blaine, had Blaine coming quickly.

When he opened his eyes, Kurt was smiling lazily as his hand stroked over his own cock. Blaine shook his head, turning them so that Kurt was pressed with his back against the shower wall and bent down, swallowing Kurt in one quick motion. It was less about technique and more about the final goal, reaching one hand up to roll both of Kurt's balls while he swallowed him down. Kurt was panting, trying to edge himself further into Blaine's mouth, and although Blaine wasn't about to try to deep throat him in the shower, he took him as far as he could before pulling back, hollowing his cheeks as he got to the tip and sucking hard, flicking his tongue over the head and then tonguing lightly into the slit.

Kurt groaned out a warning but it came a second too late, as he was already shooting down Blaine's throat. Not that Blaine minded, simply swallowing against him and using his hand to coax the rest of it out of him.

When they were finished, actually working on getting clean this time, they moved back into the bedroom and Kurt looked at the disaster that was the bed and the mess on the floor. Their previous clothes mixed with the clothes from his bag, a gun having skidded out and pressed against the closet door.

"It's going to get ugly out there Blaine. Not to mention the fact that Drake is still on the loose." Blaine nodded, turning to face the gun on the floor, that hollow feeling back in his stomach. He was going to have to face that feeling sometime soon.

"I'm sticking by you Kurt, to whatever end. You know that right? You're not getting rid of me or Sam." Blaine wrapped his arms around Kurt's stomach, leaning down so that he could press his forehead into the space between his shoulder blades.

"I don't want to get rid of either of you."

The way he said it made Blaine believe Kurt wasn't just talking about them standing next to him, made him think he was talking about something else, but before Blaine could ask, they heard the front door slam open. Kurt bent down to grab the forgotten gun, clutching the towel around his waist as he rose it to the door, lowering it in a split second when Sam called that it was him. The clock on the wall said it had just been a little over an hour, but the look on Sam's face when he burst into the bedroom was telling.

"You two... you'd better come see this." Blaine glanced at Kurt for a brief second before the two of them started to get dressed. It was starting.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Hi, yes, I know, I'm horrible for not updating sooner. I repay you with (hopefully quality but I'm not sure) smut.

It's about to pick up again. Next chapter has a lot going on, so please pay attention to the chapter warning in the beginning of the next one? Thank you.

And thank you to everyone finding me on Tumblr. You are all very sweet. I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting.

I'll also be posting my side project (Genie!Klaine titled _Not Every Wish Can Be_) on here. It's four chapters long and I will post them one per day for four days.

Thanks for reading lovelies. Be sure to let me know what you think.


	11. Chapter 11, Kurt's POV

Warning: Scenes of violent nature.

**No Man's Land**

Kurt watched Blaine for a few seconds while he moved around getting dressed, seeing his slight discomfort. He almost felt bad, but the pleasure of what they had done wouldn't really allow him to be. Once they were both dressed, Kurt's arm snapped out to grab Blaine's wrist and pulled him back to him, pressing his lips lightly to his lips and resting their foreheads together. It was just for a moment, to collect themselves, before they both nodded and simaltaneously moved to the living room where Sam was pulling something up on the television.

"_Police officers are left scratching their heads as a Greyhound bus seemed to disappear earlier today. Sources say that they bus is carrying around fifteen to twenty people, ranging from children to senior citizens, but police were called in when the station called after the bus didn't arrive after three hours, with no contact from the driver. The police and rescue squads are still canvasing the area along the route it usually takes, but so far with no luck. If you've seen the bus, marked 3326, please call in the tip line. Again, this is the-_" Sam shut off the television and moved to the front door, confident that Kurt and Blaine would follow him. How could they not at this point?

He slid Kurt's keys out of his pocket and opened the door, leaning in but not sitting. Kurt gave Blaine a look before letting him get into the driver seat while Kurt got in the back, not buckling up but focusing on what Sam was doing with the GPS.

On the bottom of the screen were the numbers that Kurt heard on the television screen. 3326. Then there was a map, telling them which way to go.

"I noticed when I was driving around that the GPS was on, telling me to go this way or that. I thought it was a default setting or something but when I turned on the radio and heard about the bus, something clicked a little dangerously. So what, this guy kidnapped a bus of people to get your attention?" Kurt nodded, glancing at the time on the GPS on how long it would take to get to the destination. He leaned forward, pressed a few buttons until it showed where exactly the destination was.

"He's got the bus about two hours away from here. See that? He's not on a road, probably secluded by some trees. But he's right near the bus depot that I mentioned before." Kurt pointed it out on the GPS and then cursed under his breath. This was getting worse by the minute.

"We've got to get up there then. There are innocent people on that bus, what, would you rather leave them to deal with this on their own?" Blaine's voice was firm, as if he fully believed that if Sam and Kurt turned him down, he'd do it on his own. With the slight hero complex that Kurt was starting to recognize with him, he wasn't entirely sure that Blaine wouldn't do that on his own.

"No, we're going to go. It just... Kurt, does this have anything to do with the assignment?" There was a pause, in which Kurt tried to figure out how much he could leave out and how much he needed to say, before sighing.

"I arranged for a bus with a few other employees on it to drive out to the station. Dropped him off there, finding out that it was deserted. I drove through, saw that he was stranded, and picked him up to give him a lift." He couldn't see Blaine's facial expression, for that he was glad. However Sam had leaned further into the vehicle to let his incredulity be completely known.

"And he's taking it out on a bunch of people that are no way involved?" With a nod, Kurt jumped out of the car and headed up to his apartment. He heard the doors shut behind him, but Blaine and Sam weren't on his heels. A quick glance said that they were talking, which Kurt had witnessed before. The two of them seemed to have created a bond in regards to what a mess Kurt was, he always caught them whispering. It was almost enough to make a man jealous, except Blaine apparently loved him and Sam was definitely not over Mercedes.

Inside, Kurt grabbed the forgotten bag and started to load it up again. Weapons outweighed clothes in this instance, but he made sure he had both. He packed his first aid kit into the bottom, praying to a god he didn't believe in that it wouldn't be needed, before sitting the bag back on his bed and staring into it. He needed to grab his laptop case, they needed to make a solid plan, he needed to get a grip on himself. It wouldn't do to walk into the lion's den with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company.

"Kurt?" He turned around, eyes taking a second to focus on Blaine in the doorway, his own bag hanging limply from his hand. He wanted to smile at Blaine, but he was starting to get into assignment mode and he couldn't even force one just yet.

"Need some help folding your clothes?" Despite his mood, he was definitely able to command sarcasm. That was at his disposal no matter the situation.

"I was just talking to Sam and I think... I'm going to ask for your honest opinion. And I will listen to it. Do you want me to stay or do you want me to come with you?"

It was everything that Kurt needed in that moment. He could tell Blaine to stay home, to lock himself in this little apartment and hold his breath until Kurt came home. It was perfect, and at the moment he found himself fighting those three words that he wasn't ready to say, because Blaine was doing this _for _Kurt. What stopped him from saying that he wanted Blaine to stay was the healing cut on his head, disappearing into his hairline but still able to be seen from the angle he was at. The cut that Drake gave him.

Drake was still out there. Drake still had a grudge against Kurt. Drake would probably still use Blaine to get back at Kurt, only this time he probably wouldn't use him as leverage. He would probably kill him right off. The thought made Kurt's stomach clench painfully.

"I think you should come with us. Just, please, if Sam or I tell you to do something, including but not limited to getting your own ass out of there and leaving us, don't question it." Blaine nodded, gripping his bag a little tighter before hoisting it over his shoulder.

"Do you... should I have some sort of..." Blaine was motioning uselessly to the bag that Kurt had open infront of him and when Kurt glanced down at the assortment of weapons in there, he wanted to say no. He knew that the moment Blaine had a gun in his hand, he'd remember Drake and that girl. Instead, he grabbed a good sized knife, stuck in a leather sheath, and held it out hilt first to Blaine.

"Here." Blaine wrapped his fingers around it before sticking it in his jacket pocket, shifting it so that it didn't stick out. There was something like a smile on his face as he spoke next.

"Talking about bringing a knife to a gun fight, huh?"

Even though Kurt needed to be serious, needed to figure out their plan, he couldn't help the smile that came on his lips at that. He abandoned his bag to go up to Blaine, pressing one of his hands against his chest before letting it slide up, over his collarbone, along his neck, to cradle his cheek in his palm.

"I'm going to keep you safe, you know that right?" Blaine nodded, covering Kurt's hand with his own and closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, they looked clearer than they had just before.

"I love you." This time Kurt didn't even try to fight the smile, bending down and pressing his lips against Blaine's with a sigh before pulling back. Sam was bustling around the living room, trying to pretend he hadn't just been listening to them.

Kurt opened his mouth, intent on telling Sam just what happened to eavesdroppers, but something stopped him. A sound, too loud in the otherwise quiet room. Blaine didn't hear it, if the confusion on his face for Kurt's abrupt mood change had anything to say about it, but Sam had stopped moving and was looking around.

They both came to the same conclusion at the same time, Sam grabbing whatever it was in his hands, grabbing Blaine's bag and in turn, Blaine's wrist, to haul him out of the room. Kurt grabbed his bag off the bed, shouting something completely wordlessly, before busting out of the apartment door. Not a second to late, as he was climbing down the steps, there was an explosion, throwing Kurt down the steps and onto the hard concrete.

It wasn't a big explosion, probably limited only to his apartment, but that didn't matter. His fucking apartment just blew up.

"Motherfucker." There was a pain in his elbow from where he landed, and everything else for that matter, plus his head was swimming. Suddenly there were two pairs of hands on him, hauling him up and to his car.

"We need to get out of here, now." Sam's voice was tense, pulling Kurt into the backseat before pushing Blaine back there as well, dumping all of their shit on the floor, climbing into the driver's seat and driving careful out of the parking lot. Since Kurt used the back exit, no one would have seen them leave.

"Someone just blew up your fucking apartment! Why did we have to leave? What the fucking fuck?" Kurt winced as Blaine started to check him over for injuries, surely what Sam had in mind when he threw them both bodily in the car.

"If we had stayed, I would have had to spend the next six hours talking to the cops. This way we can just say I wasn't home when it happened. Fuck, Sam, call Stanley. We're going to need-" Sam waved him off, already dialing a number on his phone. This made Kurt shiver as he checked his pocket for his own phone, sighing as he pulled it out. The screen was split, but it still worked, thank fuck.

"Fucking Drake." Blaine glanced up from checking Kurt's hand (and pulse, because his fingers were definitely on his pulse point, but Kurt wasn't going to call him out on that), raising an eyebrow.

"How do we know it wasn't Theo Rorp getting one last laugh?" Sam's voice, talking both to Stanley and to the two of them in the backseat, interrupted that question.

"Heard Drake's signature right before it blew. Not on a timer, he used a trigger. I had just picked up a book on Kurt's coffee table, felt a little heavy for such a small book." Kurt shook his head. It hadn't been timed perfect because between the trigger, Drake's signature sound, and the explosion, there had been too much time. They shouldn't have been able to get out alive.

"When the fuck was he in my apartment?" Sam shrugged, honestly not having a clue. None of them could remember the book, Sam's hands were shaking against the steering wheel as he talked to Stanley, and Blaine seemed to be unaware of just how hard he was squeezing Kurt's hand.

Kurt's stomach clenched again, as if it had unclenched in the entire time that had happened. If Sam and Kurt had left, without Sam touching the book, left Blaine in the apartment... he could have touched the book. He could have died.

"Fuck."

Blaine touched Kurt's temple, pulling back to reveal a little blood. Kurt held his own hand up there, feeling the edges of the busted skin.

"It's not bad. Barely bleeding for a head wound." Sam said a few more short sentences before hanging up.

"Stanley is going to work on the clean up. Your stove combusted, or the heating or something, blew the entire apartment to shit. Stan's got his guys on the force to do it, so anything that can be salvaged and you don't want on the evidence log, they'll get out." Which meant Stanley's men would go in, find all of his weapons and stow them, before actually doing their jobs and 'finding out what happened'.

One of the many perks of the job, even though he wasn't an employee anymore. Stanley didn't seem to mind loaning out his help to Kurt despite his lack of affiliation with the company. Most likely because it was one of his employees that tried to blow up Kurt. That might be it.

Kurt opened his mouth to ask a question but was cut off by the tinny ring of his phone. He pulled it out, staring at the split screen until he decided he didn't recognize the number, and put it on speaker.

"So you got out." Drake's voice was low, dangerous. He was apparently less than happy about the outcome.

"And you blew up my apartment. I had some one of a kind articles of clothing in there asshole." Kurt could see Blaine shaking his head, Sam struggling to hold in a laugh at that, but he continued to stare at his phone.

"You and me. We're going to end this. Today." Kurt's spine straightened. He didn't have time for this shit. He told Drake as much, but before he even got half of it out, he was cut off.

"You're going to meet me, or I'm going to go over to that nice little three bedroom house your mommy and daddy bought a few years ago and give them a new book. Wouldn't want that, would we?" Sam cursed, switching lanes quickly, although Kurt wasn't sure where he was going.

"When and where?" Kurt waited, trying to count the time in his head. He needed to finish Drake off, he needed to finish Theo Rorp off. Apparently once a hitman, always one.

"16th Greggory Street, the warehouse at the foot of the hill. Right now. Just you and me. You killed all of my men, you leave your backup in the car. We'll settle this once and for all." It wasn't on the opposite side of town, but damn close. Sam nodded, typing it into his phone since the GPS wouldn't stop telling them to go to the bus depot.

Kurt hung up after affirming he'd be there. He twisted his arms and legs this way and that, making sure that he wasn't going to be hindered in a fair fight. Or what the fuck was fair with Drake? He tucked one gun into the back of his pants, making sure the safety was on before pulling his hand back, before grabbing another one loosely in his hand.

The rest of the ride was made in relative silence, each person in the car staring at the road ahead. And as the warehouse at the foot of the hill came into view, Sam drove past it without slowing down much so that they could get a good look. There didn't seem to be anyone around the place, so Kurt simply sucked in a breath and told Sam to pull over with a good view of the front of the warehouse.

"Stay here, stay alert. If something happens, get the fuck out of Dodge. Call Stanley if you think it will help. If it doesn't seem like anyone is going to leave, Sam, you come check. But keep your head clear." Sam nodded, as if Kurt had simply been reading from a script rather than giving him orders. Of course it kind of was a bit of both. Kurt took a certain authority with assignments, the few that they had worked on together, and Sam always allowed him that. Plus with this, they didn't have much of a choice.

With only a squeeze to Blaine's hand, Kurt stepped out of the car and winced. His leg was feeling stiff, probably from his awkward fall. His arms were fine, even if his elbow disagreed with some of the movement, and he made his way to the warehouse door.

It wasn't an ambush, Kurt knew that. He tossed a quick glance back to the car, counting the steps he had taken in his head, before stepping into the warehouse. It was dark, except for the sunlight streaming in through various sunlights. There didn't seem to be anyone else there, and for a moment Kurt held his breath as if he expected to hear Drake's signature right before the building blew up.

"I was almost afraid you wouldn't make it." His voice came from the other side of the building, hidden in the shadows. Kurt cursed under his breath, hating that he didn't have a vantage point of his opponent.

"What do you want?" There was a laugh, low and dark just like always. Drake was one for dramatics. He could have gone into show business.

"What everyone in this line of business wants Kurt." Kurt had slowly been moving into the building, keeping stock of his surroundings, and making his way towards the voice.

"World peace?" He raised his gun as Drake emerged from the darkness, favoring his right side, his gun in his left hand pointed directly at Kurt. He could have shot from the darkness of his cover and Kurt probably wouldn't have been able to dodge it.

"Power. With you fucking everything up, Carlson would have fingered me as his heir apparent. All you had to do was roll over and take it Kurt, like the bitch we all know you are, and then everything would have worked out. Carlson would have had someone who thought just like him in control. Why he wanted you, I'll never figure out. And now we have that fucking pussy calling the shots? Him in charge for much longer, we'll no longer be of any use. He'll turn the entire company into ballerinas."

Kurt cocked his head to the side for a moment before laughing. He honestly should just shoot him and get it over with, but something told him to wait. Not to mention that there wasn't a clear shot, since the distance and the other pillars were doing their best to prolong this conversation.

"Heir apparent or not, Carlson is dead. Stanley took over. I'm out of the picture. So why me? Why not go after Stanley?" The little part of Drake that always seemed unhinged seemed to be twice as bad as he surged forward, his gun wavering pointlessly at Kurt.

"Because, Hummel, Stanley is more protected than the goddamn Pope! But you? You're fair game. And I'll have you know one thing, once you're down, I'm going to go after that little boytoy of your's and fuc-" Kurt didn't wait, exhaling as he pulled the trigger.

The bullet struck Drake on the right side again, but before he could get off another shot, he was forced to take cover as Drake shot at him twice.

"Give it up Hummel. Even if I don't kill you, even if you get me. You think I'm going to be the last? I'm not the only person that has it out for you!" Kurt popped up from behind the random crate he was using as cover and fired twice, watching in sick satisfaction as it clipped Drake's left side this time.

"You won't make it to tomorrow Hummel. You're dead, you know that right? You and Blaine and Sam too. All of you are fucking dead."

Kurt sat up one last time, exhaling as he pulled the trigger and watched as it embedded itself into Drake's chest. It wasn't a kill shot, but the force of the bullet caused his gun to drop from his hand. Kurt ran to where Drake was on the ground, kicking his gun away, and aiming it at Drake's head.

"It seems the only one of us that is dead is you Drake." He was writhing on the ground, pawing at the bullet wound which was pumping blood out. Kurt could leave him like this, he wouldn't be able to get away, but he waited. He wasn't going to take the chance, never again.

"He's better than you Kurt." Kurt registered the difference in Drake's voice, less of a taunt and more of a warning, before he closed his eyes and waited. Kurt knew what this was, felt a surge of something right before he pulled the trigger once more. Mercy killing.

When he got to the car, he pulled himself into the open passenger seat and let his gun fall to the floorboard. The safety was on, he'd have to unscrew the silencer to put it on his reserve, but for now he just wanted to take a deep breath.

"That over?" Kurt nodded. They'd have to call Stanley, get a team out there for the clean up. He kept Drake's words to himself, not wanting Sam or Blaine to know that apparently Theo Rorp had gotten into contact with Drake at some point. He kept it to himself because he wasn't sure what it meant yet, he didn't want them jumping to conclusions when he was doing that well enough himself.

"Call Puck and Santana. Tell them to arrange a Glee club reunion or something, get everyone in one place, public. As soon as they can. I'm going to call Stanley and get him to dispatch a team for clean up and dispatch someone to watch my parents."

Sam was pulling his phone out of his pocket at the same time as Kurt and he mentioned something else.

"He knows that we're meeting up with Theo, to end all of this. He's keeping pulled back, doesn't want to interfere with this since we don't know the boundaries, but he says that he'll do everything he can to keep the aftermath in line."

Kurt nodded once more because that would help a lot. Whatever this was, Theo wasn't going to let it go without some sort of show. He was worse for theatrics than Drake. After they made their calls, smoothing out the finer details, Kurt told Sam to drive. He followed the GPS system, reading off that they had just over two and a half hours ahead of them. In the silence of the car, Kurt was left to fight his demons. There was so much unaccounted for, so much that was going to probably be brought to light soon. He couldn't find it in himself to talk about it yet. Maybe when they got closer. Definitely not yet.

With that in mind, Kurt reached back and grasped Blaine's knee, feeling the little bit of tension fall away from him as Blaine covered his hand with his own and squeezed. Whatever came next, they had to be prepared.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Ugh, finally getting this one out. Sorry it took so long. Also, finally got my Genie!Klaine story up. Thank you to anyone that read that.

So, one down, one to go? Sort of. Drake is officially out of the picture. Now they have to get out to the meeting spot and figure out what Mister Rorp has waiting for them. Plus the things that Kurt has been hiding from Sam and Blaine is going to come to light as well. Next chapter is going to have a lot of action, body count, and some backstory from the prequel oneshot that I never wrote. That being said, I don't see there being too many chapters left. Two or three of action, one or two for conclusion. I'll let you know when I know more.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you think.


	12. Chapter 12, Blaine's POV

_Warning: Some violence in this chapter._

**No Man's Land**

In the silence of the car ride to wherever Theo Rorp was directing them, Blaine couldn't help but wonder what Kurt was hiding from them. Kurt wasn't being very subtle about the fact that there was something else, something more, but Blaine had to believe that if it was something that would change the outcome, Kurt would have no choice but to tell them. He sat in the back of the car, running his fingers over the sheathed knife that Kurt had given him, and tried to recall every step that had led them to this point.

How many days had it been since Kurt had shown up in New York to visit? Since then, how many different aspects of their relationship had changed? They were equals, on common ground, looking down the barrel of a loaded gun for the most part. This definitely wasn't what he expected when he had told himself, after Matthew Drum, that he wanted a more mature relationship.

He had meant what he said though, that he loved Kurt. And Kurt's hesitance to say the words back wasn't offensive, didn't make Blaine think he didn't mean it when he said he felt it. Not everyone was as open with their feelings as Blaine, he understood that.

Blaine's fingers shook as he ran them over the knife once more, checking that it was secure and wouldn't fall out but still easy to get to. Kurt kept sending Sam looks, all three of them checking the route to wherever Rorp was sending them. Kurt, who had been tense since they left the warehouse, seemed to unravel a bit as he turned to face Blaine and Sam equally from the passenger seat.

"Before we get there, there is something that I-" Whatever he was about to say was cut off by a cell phone, leaving Kurt to curse under his breath as he pulled it out.

There was a moment that Kurt didn't look like he was going to answer it, maybe toss it out of the window, but he sighed and pressed the speaker button.

"I won't say anything about your little detour, for the sake of time. You are ten minutes out, so I expect to see you in that time. All three of you, no dropping anyone off anywhere. I think that you'll enjoy the surprise I have set up for you."

The moment the words were out, the dialtone came over. Kurt snapped his phone shut, looking as if he wanted to throw it out of the window, before reluctantly shoving it into his pocket. After a moment, where Sam and Kurt seemed to be having a telepathic word, Kurt turned to face Blaine as fully as he could.

"Stay behind Sam and I, do exactly as we say, and... Blaine, there are some things that Rorp might say about me. Just don't think poorly of me. If we get out of this, I promise to explain everything." Sam shot a look to Blaine in the rearview mirror, one that said that Blaine needed to put Kurt's mind at ease, no matter how he felt right now.

Scooting forward, Blaine pressed his lips to Kurt's temple, reaching up to wrap his hand around Kurt's and squeeze it tightly.

"We'll get out of it. All of us."

The rest of the ride was made in mostly silence, with Kurt and Sam whispering every now and then, most likely making battle plans. Blaine went back to wondering what it was that Kurt was worried Theo Rorp would say. Blaine wasn't very worried, there were things that he already assumed about Kurt's prior job, and he trusted Kurt. Trusted him with his life, trusted him with his heart. What more could Blaine need to know?

The GPS directed the group past the newly functioning bus station, which Blaine got a good look at as they turned down the gravel road near it. Not long after being on the gravel road, although passing all signs of civilization, the bus became visible, parked with its back end facing a grouping of trees, its front facing them.

"There will be at least one guy in the bus, a few in the trees." Kurt checked his pockets before hoisting his bag over his shoulder. Blaine's bag had nothing but clothes in it, but Sam motioned for him to put it on, while Sam did the same. That told Blaine that they weren't really sure what was coming next, but staying in the car might not be it.

"What about Rorp?" They were parked at a distance from the bus, watching for any movement. There were obviously people in the bus, moving around every now and then. Innocent people that had no idea what was going on.

"Probably not on the bus, possibly in the trees. Eyes open and try not to get separated."

The three stepped out of the vehicle at the same time, moving forward slowly. Sam would turn around every now and then, glance behind them, before continuing forward. Blaine caught Kurt's eye a few times, as he turned his head specifically to check on Blaine, but couldn't offer a reassuring smile. He didn't feel very reassured himself.

"Stop, don't come any further." A woman's voice, shaking and gravelly from crying most likely, came from the bus. Was the hijackers using the hostages as mouth pieces?

"What do you want?" Kurt's voice carried over the distance, still just far enough to not be able to make out any individual shapes in the bus, but they could make out the shadow near the door where the woman was standing. It looked like there was someone standing behind her, but Blaine couldn't be sure. He stuck his hand into his pocket, fitting his fingers around the handle of the knife, and waited.

"I want Kurt and Blaine to stay where they are, but I want Sam to come escort the hostages to safety." They were splittling them up. Sam spoke lowly to Kurt, pocketing one of his guns but keeping his other leveled, before heading to the bus.

Sam was almost at the bus, lowering his weapon just enough that he wouldn't spook any of the people in there, when Blaine noticed movement in the trees. Kurt must have noticed it too because he turned his head just the tiniest bit, his shoulders tensing.

"That's Rorp." The man in the trees motioned them forward, but Kurt didn't move for a moment. They watched Sam get on the bus and to start ushering the hostages out of the door, heading up the street towards them. Anothing glance to Rorp and the man was still motioning for them to join him, but there was something he was holding in his hand. Kurt's eyes widened, recognizing it for what it was in a second, turning back to the bus.

He opened his mouth, but Sam's name was barely out before there was a moment of deafening noise and heat, throwing Kurt and Blaine backwards. Blaine could hear the muffled screams of the people that had left the bus, maybe even the ones that hadn't gotten far enough away before the explosion. The only thing that Blaine could comprehend was that Sam was still on that bus.

He started at a crawl, trying to get up and get to the bus. Sam was in there and no, not like this, Blaine had to get him out, but Kurt was pulling him backwards, speaking to him but the words weren't registering. His ears were ringing and there was something suspiciously warm leaking over his eyes and nose, dripping into his mouth and tasting coppery. Blood. His blood. Either something hit his head or it bounced off the ground when the explosion threw them backwards.

Kurt's voice finally penetrated Blaine's haze, urging him onto his feet.

"He's gone Blaine, we have to go, come on." An explosion like that would draw attention, they weren't far enough away from the main road that no one would have heard it. Hell, some people might have seen it. They were pulling themselves away from the blast, towards the car, and once they got there, Kurt was leveling his gun up a moment before Blaine realized what was going on.

A man was leaning against the passenger side of the car, smiling politely at the two of them, as if he hadn't just blew up their friend. As if he wasn't the cause of all of the terror. People were running past them, screaming, trying to get away. In the distance, Blaine's foggy brain was able to recognize the sound or sirens.

"Get in the car. We have places to be." Kurt pulled Blaine to the driver side of the car, pushing him in the backseat, subtly tucking a gun into Blaine's pocket as he did so. It was bringing up flashes of Drake holding his hand around Blaine's, pressing down on the trigger, making Blaine shoot the woman that was standing across the room. He would have to choke back those memories if he wanted to live. He could dwell on them another day.

Kurt pulled himself into the driver seat, not pocketing his gun as he waited for Rorp to pull himself in.

"To the left of the burning wreckage, there is a dirt road. Come now Kurt, we don't have all day." The sirens were getting closer, and although Blaine turned, he couldn't see the source.

"Give me one good reason not to just shoot you right now." That forced Blaine to turn around, to see Kurt pressing his gun into Rorp's temple. The man, for all his bravado, looked a little shaken.

"Because if I don't arrive at the next destination in the next ten minutes, I've given my men the go ahead to turn your family and friends into a turkey shoot. Now drive." Kurt waited a moment before swearing and putting the car in drive, driving past the burning bus.

Blaine couldn't help staring at it as they drove past, seeing the people huddled around the back instead of escaping. There were a few bodies on the ground and-

Blaine had to look away. He couldn't bear the thought. Sam was gone. He could only imagine the pain that Kurt was feeling. Blaine hadn't ever really lost anyone, not someone that he was really close to. Kurt had told him about his mom, but that was as close that Blaine had gotten to feeling any sense of mourning, and it was for a woman he didn't know. Now Sam was gone.

"Left here, that's a boy. Now continue down this road and when you see a house, we'll be stopping there."

Kurt's knuckles were white where he was holding onto the steering wheel so hard. Blaine wanted to reach forward, place his hand on his shoulder, just so that Kurt knew he was there, but he didn't want to do that infront of Rorp. The man must have had a sixth sense though, because he turned around as if he knew that Blaine had been thinking about him, and smiled at him.

"It is a pleasure to meet the man that has stolen Kurt Hummel's heart, indeed it is. Of course I already know a bit about you. Your jobs, your schooling, your home life. Have you spoken to Wes since you up and left? I'm sure he's worried about you. He doesn't trust your boyfriend. Not that I blame him, I'm not sure I'd trust him either. Do you trust him Blaine?"

Blaine nodded, not trusting his voice. For as polite and harmless as he seemed, Blaine could feel the danger about this guy. He wasn't just dangerous because he was smart and knew all of this about them. There was something else there.

"There we have it, ladies and gentlemen. He trusts you." Kurt cast a glance over his shoulder to Blaine before pulling to a stop infront of a house Blaine hadn't seen them approaching. Rorp was the first one out of the car, smiling as he did so.

"Come along, come along, don't have all day." Blaine followed Kurt out of the car, gripping Kurt's elbow before they moved to the other side of the car.

"Nothing he can tell me will change how I feel about you." His voice was low, merely a whisper, but he had to say it. Kurt nodded, squeezing Blaine's hand before moving around the car and joining Rorp.

They followed the man into the house, Blaine noticing that there didn't seem to be anyone else there. It was eerily quiet and when he turned on the lights, Blaine saw that it wasn't even very furnished. A couch, a chair, a fridge in the corner of the kitchen. It seemed to have the bare minimum.

"Have a seat, make yourself comfortable." Following Kurt's lead, Blaine sat on the couch, just close enough that they weren't really touching. Rorp eyed them for a moment before sitting down in the chair across from the, crossing his legs over one another and smiling brightly, with a hint of hysteria behind it.

"What do you want?" Kurt, despite everything, hadn't released his grip on his gun. Blaine could feel the one he had put in his pocket weighing down his jacket, but he didn't move to touch it. He didn't want to unless he absolutely had to.

"Just to talk, Kurt. Isn't that what you said to me about Amanda? You just wanted to talk to her, I just want to talk to you and Blaine." A shiver ran down Blaine's spine at the tone, which despite the smile, was completely terrorizing.

"What do you want to talk about then?" Kurt was speaking through clenched teeth, his gun alternatingly pointing at Rorp and pointing at the floor.

"The past, Kurt. I want to talk about the past."

Blaine waited, trying to figure out where any of this was going, and turned in time to catch Kurt's back straighten and his shoulders tense. He was preparing for something, it was a stance Blaine had seen a few times before.

"Fine. Let's talk." Blaine was pretty sure he wasn't going to like what they had to say.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I'm so so so so very sorry about the wait. If you follow me on Tumblr, you'll know that I took a vague hiatus recently. From writing, from life if you would. And then afterwards I had to get myself back in order. However I'm back.

This is the climax. The next chapter is going to have a lot going on, explaining what Rorp is doing and how everything fits together. And then there will be another chapter as a conclusion, longer and smutty in places. So two more chapters.

Thank you for those that have stuck around to this point. You all are fantastic.


	13. Chapter 13, Kurt's POV

_Warning:_ A lot of violence in this chapter.

**No Man's Land**

Theo Rorp only wanted to talk. He stalked Kurt, made his life a living hell, killed their friend and who knows how many innocent bystanders, just to talk. The thought actively made Kurt feel ill. And not just because he could imagine what it was that Theo wanted to say.

He didn't just want to talk, not if he brought up Amanda. That's what this was all about, that's what it all boiled down to. He wanted Kurt to suffer the knowledge that something was going to happen, something he had no control over.

The gun felt heavy in Kurt's hand, though Rorp didn't make any movement to take it from him, which was strange. Kurt wasn't even entirely positive that Rorp had a gun on him, although he had to. It was stupid to go through all of this unarmed, from either side. Blaine was keeping his hand carefully away from the pocket that Kurt had slipped the gun into, trying not to draw attention to it. Honestly Rorp would have to be blind not to notice the outline of the gun, distorted from the stretch of the knife also pressed in the pocket, but still recognizable.

It was just a game to Rorp, that much was disturbingly obvious. Kurt just couldn't understand why. Why not just kill them? That had to be the end result, that had to be what Rorp wanted from all of this. He wouldn't just play this game without knowing how he wanted it to end. And it had to end.

"Did Kurt ever tell you how we met, Blaine?" Kurt tried not to show anything, tried to keep his face blank and his shoulders not tighter than they had been before.

"Not exactly." Rorp smiled, leaning back a bit in his seat, staring the both of them down. He definitely had something planned, but Kurt couldn't figure out his angle.

"You see, I was starting a computer business and I met this really great guy named Ben. Ben was attractive and smart and funny, he was a great guy. We were dating for, hm, two weeks give or take, when I introduced him to my sister. She was having a hard time, told me that Ben was a little odd. I was enamored with Ben to the point that I couldn't see his faults, but that was the point, wasn't it Kurt?"

Blaine had stiffened just a bit, probably reminded of how their relationship had started, but relaxed soon after. Rorp didn't seem to have even noticed, his eyes glued to Kurt's face.

"Do you want to tell this next part, or shall I?" Not resisting the bait, Rorp wanting to see if Kurt would admit to what happened next to Blaine, Kurt glanced over and finished the story from his point of view.

"I had a job to do, to take out a couple of witnesses in an insurance and security lawsuit. Amanda was to be my information source, only she was paranoid by that time, scared of what her bosses were going to do to her. So I had to go through a secondary source, Theo. He introduced me to Amanda, I was able to get the information from her by force."

Blaine leaned forward just a little, leaning into Kurt's space instead of away from him. It had to be deliberate, if the look he was giving him was any hint. He wanted Kurt to see that he wasn't pulling away, that he was standing by what he had said outside of the car.

"How much force?" Blaine's voice was steady, which was possibly the only thing that Kurt needed to hear just then.

"Held a gun to her head. Forced her to tell me the names of the people. Threatened her and Rorp, made them see that going to the cops would mean trouble for them and everyone else they loved. She dropped off the radar on her own, wanting to get away from it all once the trial was over."

With a nod, Blaine turned to face Rorp again. Kurt stared at Blaine's neck, watched him swallow a few times before turning to look at Rorp as well. He was still smiling, but it was a shade more violent than it had been.

"You're leaving out the most important part of the story Kurt." The hair on the back of Kurt's neck stood up but he didn't respond, simply watched Rorp's face as the violent smile turned back to the original one.

"Which part would that be?" Rorp leaned forward, his eyes shifting from Kurt to Blaine's face, the smile turning into more of a leer. Kurt knew what was coming, knew he should intercept it and tell Blaine himself, but before he could even open his mouth, Rorp let the words out.

"Kurt and I had sex. Multiple times."

The silence that followed the statement almost caused Kurt to falter, but a quick glance to Blaine told him that it might be okay. While he didn't look particularly pleased by the information, Blaine didn't look terribly shocked either. Had he guessed that Kurt had slept with Rorp? Kurt wasn't sure what he thought of that possibility.

"That doesn't bother you?" Rorp's voice was sickly sweet, as if he genuinely cared about the knowledge bothering Blaine. The sound of it rubbed Kurt the wrong way, picked at his memory but he couldn't figure out why.

"I knew he'd had sex before him and I became involved. I knew he'd slept with targets before. No, it doesn't bother me."

Whether Blaine was really good at lying or if he was telling the truth was lost on Kurt. The first two were true, Kurt had been open about that, but he wasn't sure if the thought didn't really bother Blaine. He hoped they'd have time to talk about it later.

Rorp seemed thrown off by Blaine's acceptance. It made Kurt wonder how much of this had been placed on Blaine being hurt or enraged by the news. The way that Rorp was looking between the two, eyes quick and calculating in a way that Kurt didn't like, told Kurt just what he wanted to know.

It also triggered the memory that he had forgotten. Rorp, pressed against Kurt's side, mumbling that he loved him after only knowing him a few days, telling him never to leave his side. Rorp was unhinged, might have been to start with. This had been culminating from the beginning, from the moment Kurt had met him. It was always going to lead here, Blaine was just an innocent bystander.

But not innocent in Rorp's eyes, who may have only just realized how much Kurt and Blaine meant to one another. It seemed as if he was trying to reform his plan to allow for the change, turn it back so that he was in control. Right now he wasn't in control and Kurt needed to take advantage of it.

"That's what this was about, isn't it? You wanted to drag Blaine and me into this, force me to admit that not only am I a bad person, but that I've had a sexual relationship with someone trying to destroy our lives? That was your great plan, to tear us apart."

He should have seen it coming, he was egging on an unhinged man, and he should have been prepared. Within a blink of an eye, Rorp was pointing a gun that Kurt hadn't even known he was carrying at Blaine, finger on the trigger and knuckle white from the strain not to pull it straight away.

Even as Kurt raised his gun to point at Rorp, he knew he was at a loss here. He could pull the trigger, could kill Rorp, but Rorp could also kill Blaine with the last millisecond of his own life. That in mind, Kurt did the only thing he could think, which was to throw himself over Blaine.

The pain was a bit of a shock, since the noise didn't seem to register over the sound of his heart pounding in his ears. The adrenaline pumped through him, forcing him to ignore the pain in his shoulder long enough to notice that the couch had also tipped over. In the seconds that it happened, Kurt was on his feet and aiming his gun where Rorp had been, but the room was empty. Blaine was groaning from the impact of his head against the floor, struggling to get his feet while disoriented.

Kurt dragged him up and marched him so that his back was in a corner, putting himself in front of Blaine and wincing at the pressure on his back. He knew that Blaine could see the blood but he didn't have time to think about it. He needed to get them out of there. He needed to kill Rorp and then get them out of there. He needed to do something.

"How's your head?" Blaine nodded, blanched when he realized what a bad idea that had been. He must have hit harder than Kurt had thought, but he didn't have time to check.

"Okay, stay against the wall, don't leave my side. I need to find Rorp." In favor of nodding, Blaine just mouthed 'okay' before resting one hand against the wall, following Kurt's footsteps. There didn't seem to be much to the house, one story unless there was a basement. There was a curtain on the window of the front door which wasn't moving, meaning Rorp hadn't exited that way. There might be a door in the back, but Kurt didn't think Rorp would have left. No, he was somewhere in this house, waiting for them.

There was a doorway that they needed to cross to get to another expanse of wall. Kurt imagined that staying in this room was going to be their best bet, so he motioned for Blaine to go first, watching the other three doors in the room for movement. Two of them were open but he wasn't sure which one Rorp would have gone through.

Blaine had barely taken three steps when there was another gunshot and he slumped against the wall. Kurt swiveled, not sure when he had taken his eyes off of the doors and put them on Blaine, but before he could even get a good look at where the shot had come from, there was another one and a piercing pain through his side. Time slowed down as he fell, pressing his hand against his side to stem the blood flow. His shoulder was aching but there wasn't much he could do about that. One in the shoulder, one in the side. Blaine had been hit somewhere, although Kurt wasn't sure where. He turned to look, but Blaine wasn't where he had fallen, a splotch of blood on the wall and a few drips on the floor.

A glance up showed Blaine, eyes wide from fear and pain, being supported by Rorp, pressing his gun to Blaine's temple. There was blood slipping between Blaine's fingers of his left hand while he put pressure over the bullet wound on his right bicep. The gun in Kurt's own hand felt heavy, heavier than it had any right to be. He struggled upwards, using the wall as support, creating a little more of a scene than he needed. He was weak and in pain, sure, but he was focused on making Rorp underestimate him. He just needed Blaine to move his head an inch, just give him a clear shot. In pain Kurt wouldn't be able to raise his gun at his usual speed, but he had to do something.

"Don't do something stupid Kurt. You see, you don't know the whole story anymore, do you?" His voice was wavering but his gun was steady, watching Kurt from just beside Blaine's head.

"What story?" He waited, not wanting to play the word games, wanting to just end this. To whatever end.

"My sister killed herself six months ago. The weight of what happened ate at her and ate at her until she couldn't take it, until her only hope was to take her own life."

Kurt could feel his heart stutter just a bit at the words. His realization was confirmed with Rorp's next words.

"I have nothing left to lose. But you? You have everything to lose." His gun pressed tighter to Blaine's head, who closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, letting out a few sounds on the exhale. There was nothing that Kurt could do.

It was as if Kurt could feel the press of the gun against his own head, immobilized by a surge of fear he barely understood, his eyes incapable of leaving Blaine's face. He wanted to reach out, to tell him that he had a plan, that it would be okay, but that's what Rorp wanted him to do. He wanted false platitudes. He wanted Kurt to offer comfort where none could be found, just like Rorp had been forced to do with his sister. Rorp wanted Kurt to tell Blaine that everything would be fine even when he knew it wouldn't be. The ultimate payback, the final successful push, the end result to his game. He wanted to destroy Kurt just as much as Kurt had destroyed him.

Instead of giving in, Kurt took a deep breath and said something different, something that wasn't expected.

"I love you." He meant it. He meant it with whatever was left of him. No matter what came, he needed Blaine to know that. He hadn't said it when Blaine had, still living with the idea that they could succeed with it, but he had to now.

It was enough, just enough, to change everything.

The hand that Blaine was using to stem the blood flow loosened and dropped to his pocket, unnoticed by Rorp. Kurt could see his fingers tighten around something before it shot out and over his shoulder. The blade buried itself in Rorp's neck, a sound that Kurt had heard before many times coming as he tried to scream from the pain. The gun dropped and his fingers moved to his neck uselessly. Blaine fell forward, scooting as far from the body as he could, pushing himself against the overturned couch. Kurt stepped forward, still pressing his free hand against his side, and shot Rorp three times in the chest. The man dropped, motionless.

He stared at the body, unmoving on the ground, the blood slowly trickling away from the body and edging towards where Kurt was standing. He took a moment before stepping back, making sure the blood didn't touch him as he did so.

"That was rather anticlimactic." From the corner of his eye, Kurt watched as Blaine looked over at him, incredulity written on his face.

"Speak for yourself." There was a moment of silence before the two of them chuckled, Kurt pulling himself over to where Blaine was slumped. He kept his hand pressed tight to his side, although he didn't think it was bleeding as bad as it had been anymore.

"We need to get out of here. It's not good to stay with a dead body."

"What about... our blood is all over the place, our DNA." Kurt glanced over, at the wall where Blaine had slumped, drips from both of them littering the floor around Rorp's body. Blaine's blood might even be on Rorp's body, and vice versa.

"Way I figure it, I can call in another favor from Stanley. Come on, we need to get out of here and fast."

Blaine and Kurt leaned on each other as they trudged their way to the car, stumbling down the steps. Blaine was going to have to drive, Kurt had had too much blood loss. He needed to make a call, get everything cleaned up nice and spiffy before the cops found the house. And someone had to have gone to the site where the bus blew up, it was only a matter of time. As they approached the car, Kurt put a hand out and stopped Blaine, pulling his gun out and aiming it at the window. He could see the shadow of someone on the other side of the vehicle, the sun shining through the tinted windows.

"Come out, now, or I will shoot." The person seemed to think about it for only a second before two hands were raised over the cars, a gun in one hand but held in a way that would be difficult to fire. As he rounded the hood of the car, Kurt felt his stomach drop.

"How...?" Blaine's face was a mirror image of Kurt's as they stared at Sam, who was very much alive despite definitely having been in the bus when it had exploded.

"Everyone on that bus was paid off by Rorp. We got off of the bus before it exploded. Once you guys left, they waited a few minutes and then scattered like roaches. I walked here from the clearing." There was blood on his leg, which explained his slight limp.

"What the fuck." Looking a little more than a little light headed, Blaine slumped against the edge of the car and eyed Kurt and Sam warily for a minute.

"I think I might be in shock." Sam shot Kurt an amused look, but was interrupted from whatever he might have said by the distant sounds of sirens.

"We need to get the fuck out of here, come on. I've already called Stanley, but I assume you have some of your own tidbits to add to it, so we can call him back on our way to a safehouse. Have a medic sent out since I'm pretty sure one or all three of us are about to die of blood loss. Do you have something to eat? I'm hungry."

Kurt couldn't help but laugh as he pulled himself into the car, wincing first at the pain and then at the knowledge that it was going to be hell to clean to blood out. Sam was alive, and Kurt was looking forward to hearing the story that went along with that, but mostly Kurt was just happy that it was over.

He turned around, wincing at the pull on his injuries, and found Blaine leaning back against the seat, eyes open at staring at Kurt.

"I meant it you know. I kind of thought it would be the last chance I'd get to say something to you and I meant it." Blaine reached forward, wrapping his fingers around Kurt's and squeezing tightly.

"Just so you know, I expect you to say it all the time now." Kurt smiled, returning the pressure on Blaine's fingers, before resting back in his seat. He would say them again, probably sometime today, but he didn't need to just then. For now, they just needed to focus on cleaning up this mess and getting home.

Everything else would fall into place afterwards.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I apologize for the lack of updates recently. I've had some shit going on that required me to not write, but I'm back at it. Also, sorry for pretending to kill of Sam. I never had any intentions of killing Sam. His survival will be more thoroughly explained in the next/last chapter.

The next chapter _is _the last. I'm pretty sure at that point, I'll be hanging up my Hitman!Klaine boots. I have a few other things in the works right now, but I'm not sure what my next multi-chapter project will be.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.


	14. Chapter 14, Blaine's POV, Final

Warning: Scenes of sexual nature.

**No Man's Land**

It took a while once they met Stanley's medic at the safe house to get the whole story figured out. As Sam called them, the henchmen were paid as a scare tactic, as a distraction from what was really happening. Neither Sam nor any of their family or friends were in any immediate danger. They weren't even entirely sure that Kurt and Blaine would have been in danger until Rorp came to the realization that things weren't going as planned.

"Everything this guy did was a ploy to hide his true intentions. He was smart." Sam shook his head, swatting at the medic that was trying to take his blood pressure. The man rolled his eyes, probably used to the way they acted, before moving back to his things to pack up. He'd already seen to Kurt and Blaine, already stitched them both up and told them how to take care of the wounds later. Kurt moved from his position next to the door, not entirely ready to let down his guard, and turned to face where Sam was sitting.

"Smart and dead. That's all that matters to me." Blaine watched as Kurt and Sam went back and forth, tossing ideas around about Rorp's final plan. He listened to their theories, ranging from absurd to very probable, with only half an ear.

He kept thinking about what had happened. It was almost as if he could still feel the gun pressed to his skin, as if he could still feel the knife plunging into Rorp's neck, could still hear the sound of Kurt finishing him off. Over and over and over, it continuously replayed in his mind like it was on loop, with no way to turn it off.

It felt unreal, like it still hadn't sunk in yet. What he did, what he saw, how it all happened? Honestly, it felt like it hadn't happened at all. Except the getting shot part, that felt very real. It felt like a dream maybe, like it was too strange to happen to him, to anyone really.

"Blaine? Did you hear me? I said you should get some sleep. We'll figure out what happens next in the morning."

He could see the apprehension in Kurt's eyes, the way that he turned in on himself. It wasn't strictly physical, and Blaine wasn't sure that anyone would know what to look for if they didn't show those exact signs themselves, but he could see it. He wasn't sure what the morning would mean for them, if Blaine would want to stay no matter what he had said before. Blaine stood up from his spot in the living room and careful of Kurt's injuries, pulled him tight against him before pressing their lips together in a not so chaste kiss.

When they parted, Blaine was sure to press one last soft kiss to Kurt's mouth before heading into the bedroom, smiling as he did so. His and Kurt's stuff were in this room, while Sam's was in the other. It wasn't the most comfortable looking bed, but at this point, Blaine was pretty sure he could sleep on the floor and be fine.

"Is he going to be okay?" The question startled Blaine, who probably wasn't meant to hear Sam's question, but he pressed his ear to the crack of the door and waited for Kurt's answer.

"He's been through a lot, things that people don't even think about in their worst dreams. I think he'll be fine, but I plan on being there for him if he's not."

Blaine found himself smiling again, falling onto the bed. The movement jarred his arm, but the pain wasn't enough to wipe the smile from his face. After a few moments, Blaine finally rolled over to be able to cover up, careful of his arm. It didn't take long before he drifted off to sleep, arm tingling and smile still in place.

He woke with Kurt's arm wrapped over his waist, a soft puff of air continuously blowing on his neck where Kurt had pressed his face. It tickled a little, but there was no way that Blaine was going to move from that spot.

Blaine couldn't help but wonder if he could have this; have Kurt in bed at night, waking up with him in the morning. They'd been in the strangest courtship up to that point, doing things a little differently. They'd been together over a month, but in that time Blaine had been in New York and Kurt had been in Ohio. When they first met, they were with each other every day, every night. Then they weren't. And now they were back together, in Ohio of all places, and Blaine wasn't sure what was going to happen next.

He did know one thing though. He would rather be in another state and still be able to call Kurt his than not to have Kurt in his life at all. No matter how messed up their meeting was, the circumstances that brought them together, Blaine didn't regret it. Not one single bit.

"You're thinking awfully loud for barely four in the morning." Blaine bent his head back so that his eyes met Kurt's, caught between awake and asleep, but smiling. Definitely smiling.

"Did I wake you?" Kurt shook his head, nuzzling back under Blaine's chin to speak to his collarbone.

"No. I think I needed to use the bathroom but I'm not ready to leave just yet." The arm that was wrapped around Blaine's waist squeezed tighter, pulling Blaine just a little bit closer to Kurt.

They stayed like that for a while longer, until the sun started peeking through the tiny window in the corner of the room and Kurt was forced to disentangle himself from Blaine to relieve himself. Blaine stayed in the bed, noticing the dull throb in his arm instead of the blinding pain from the day before. Instead of coming back to bed, Blaine listened as Kurt made his way into the other room, probably to talk to Sam. He wanted to move, maybe to eavesdrop, or maybe to join the conversation, but it felt like his entire body was protesting the thought. A little sore, still very tired, still wanting to stay in the dreamland where Kurt and Blaine had this every day.

He wasn't even sure it could happen. Kurt had a family in Lima, he had his family and friends and his job. Blaine had his new life in New York, work and friends and school at some point. One of them would have to sacrifice, give ground and make the move for what he wanted to happen.

Still stuck somewhere between going back to sleep and being unable to, Blaine felt the bed dip and rolled over, raising an eyebrow up at Sam who had perched himself on the edge of the bed.

"Get up sunshine, we need to talk." Blaine sat up, rubbing his hand over his face before pushing Sam away. He grabbed his clothes, changing them after using the bathroom, before making his way into the kitchen where Kurt was filling a few plates with the breakfast he was making.

"Good morning." Blaine pressed a kiss to Kurt's cheek, smiling as the other man turned into the kiss before handing him his plate and ushering him to the living room where they settled around the coffee table.

"So what's going on?" He knew better than to beat around the bush with Kurt and Sam, knew that the direct course was the best course. They looked at one another over their plates and drinks for a few moments before Kurt finally started talking.

He explained that Stanley had been called to clear everything up, had taken care of the shooting of one Theo Rorp. Kurt was very clinical about it, keeping his tone detached as he described what Stanley had planned for everything. Blaine listened with only half an ear, because while it was important, he wasn't sure he wanted to know. Kurt's past may never leave them alone, but this part was over. They didn't need to drill it into their heads anymore than they already had.

"I have experience hiding work related injuries from my family, but this is going to be harder. Guess I'll have to come up with a story by time I go home." Blaine's head shot up, having glanced down to look at his plate, and saw that Kurt was addressing Sam. When Kurt turned back, Blaine made a show of smiling and taking a long drink from his coffee.

"So what, we wait a few days until we no longer look like shit and then reintroduce ourselves to society?" It was half a joke, which thankfully Kurt and Sam seemed to realize if their returned smiles were anything to go on.

"Well I don't know about you two, because I have a date tonight that I need to be back to Lima for." Blaine watched as Kurt eyed Sam before nodding, seemingly to understand what that meant a lot more than Blaine did and approving.

"I think we'll stay here for another night. Unless... unless you are in a rush to get back to New York?" With no other word offering itself up for use, Blaine would say that Kurt looked almost shy. He was still walking on eggshells when it came to their relationship. Blaine shot him another smile, hoping to ease his worries a bit.

"We'll stay."

The rest of the day passed quickly, with Sam leaving not long after breakfast after a short private talk with Kurt. That left Kurt and Blaine alone in the house for the rest of the day, which they spent cooking or taking care of each other's wounds, but not focusing on what happened. They probably needed to sit down, go over it with each other, but Blaine didn't think it was going to be necessary for them. No matter what had happened since the day Kurt flew into New York to visit him, it didn't matter. While the things he had been forced to do were difficult, would plague him for a long time, he knew he could overcome.

Besides, Stanley had offered for Blaine to see the company's therapist if it got to be too much.

Even though Sam leaving left the other room open, Kurt crawled into the bed that Blaine was already half asleep in as the sun went down. He curled around Blaine, still a little careful of Blaine's arm and his own injuries, and pressed his mouth against the back of Blaine's neck. A second and third kiss soon followed, each heavier than the last, lasting just a little longer. When he pulled his head back after the third kiss, Blaine couldn't help the shiver that traveled down his spine as Kurt ran his tongue over the area he had been kissing.

"Don't start something you can't finish Kurt." The other man laughed, pressing his palm against Blaine's chest and sliding it down, so that it rested over his navel.

"You think you can keep up?" Blaine made a noise in the back of his throat, using the hand that wasn't trapped under the pillow to start sliding his sweat pants and underwear off, feeling Kurt doing the same thing.

There wasn't much of a way for them to have sex in their conditions; Kurt was definitely not up to anything strenuous. Instead, Blaine pulled the hand that was still resting over his navel to his mouth, licking a long stripe from the heel of the palm to the tip of the middle finger before repeating the process. Kurt was making a few noises in the back of his throat, biting down on Blaine's neck as he tried to keep from shifting his hips too obviously just yet. Once Kurt's hand was as wet as Blaine could get it in their position, he moved it to encase his rapidly filling cock, groaning at the contact.

While Kurt did a few short pulls, Blaine shifted so that he was more on his back than he was on his side, careful to keep as much contact with Kurt as possible. In that position, Kurt's cock was trapped between his stomach and Blaine's hip, which he consciously started thrusting against while Blaine laved at his own palm. He dropped it between them, purposefully missing Kurt's cock in favor of letting his wet fingers play with his balls before reaching back up and wrapping his fingers around Kurt's length.

Neither of them were going to last long, that much was obvious. Kurt was already making a high keening noise in the back of his throat, the one that Blaine associated with his imminent release. Blaine could feel his own orgasm building, lighting his spine on fire as he let his hips fuck up into the hand that was alternating between quick and slow jerks over his cock. The movement of his hips brushed against the exposed part of Kurt's cock as Blaine moved his hand over it.

It didn't take long before he felt something hit his hands and leg. He opened his eyes, looking first at Kurt's come landing on his leg and then at Kurt's face, angling his head up so that their lips could meet, before his own orgasm hit him.

Afterwards Blaine got up to grab a cloth, cleaning them both up and pulling on his boxers in the process. Kurt did the same wincing a bit as he bent up to pull his boxers back up his legs. The bullet went through the fleshy part of his side, missing everything vital thankfully, but it hurt whenever Kurt moved too much. Blaine rolled him over, pressed a light kiss to the area just above the bandage, before curling in Kurt's arms, pressing his face against Kurt's collarbone.

"What happens in the morning?" Kurt ran his fingers up and down Blaine's spine, not light enough to tickle but not hard enough to be more than a comforting gesture. They hadn't sat down and had the relationship talk yet, they hadn't had the time or really the need, but Blaine felt like this was going to be the best time for it.

"We wake up, make breakfast, and then..." Kurt's voice trailed off as if he was just figuring out that they couldn't just go home. Home was two different places for them. Blaine had New York, Kurt had Lima. They were quiet after that, for so long that Blaine was almost sure that Kurt had fallen asleep, except his fingers were still moving up and down Blaine's spine slowly.

"The thing about design schools is that they are everywhere. And what if design isn't really what I want to do with my life now? There are other things to do, other places to do them."

It wasn't exactly an answer, but Blaine smiled and pressed a kiss to Kurt's neck before allowing himself to drift off. His dreams were plagued with bullets and screams, pain shooting up his arm. Everything was hazy, but he kept seeing Kurt getting shot, kept being unable to stop Rorp in those last few moments. Then there was a hand on his neck, not to stop his breathing or to hold him down, but... calming...

"Blaine?" Kurt's voice brought Blaine back, eyes snapping open and taking in his surroundings. It was morning, sunlight coming through the little window above them, and Kurt was leaning over Blaine looking a little helpless.

"You were having a nightmare." Blaine nodded, remembering the different images that had kept coming back, before sitting up. He grabbed Kurt's hand as he tried to pull it away, holding it close to his neck and waiting. He could feel the pads of Kurt's fingertips trace over the vein in his neck, counting his heartbeat until it was steady once again.

After they showered, together if only to make sure they didn't irritate their wounds, they patched each other back up and dressed quietly. Kurt had looked at the things in the kitchen before deciding to just have cereal, the rest of the food having dwindled in the few days they were there.

"No matter what our long term plan is, I have to go back to see my dad. It would mean a lot to me if you came with me." This was the olive branch Blaine had been looking for without knowing it. He reached across the breakfast table and squeezed Kurt's hand in his.

"He's going to accuse me of trying to steal you away." Kurt laughed, ducking his head before pulling his hand back to finish eating.

"He'll understand."

When they arrived at the Hummel residence, one Burt Hummel was waiting for them on the porch to get out of Kurt's car. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was leaning against the door, looking every bit of the protective father as Kurt had told Blaine stories of. For his part, Blaine made sure to look at polite and respectful as possible.

"Two things, Kurt, and then we won't talk about this again. One, you're not too old to call me and let me know where you are. Two, you're not too old for me to worry about you. Now get in the house, Carole is making homemade pizza."

Kurt and Blaine followed him in, Burt shaking Blaine's hand with a shake of his head, as if he wasn't sure what he thought of Blaine yet. It would take a while for the older man to fully accept Blaine, especially since every time he was around, Kurt turned up missing.

During Carole's homemade pizza, which was beyond delicious and Blaine made a point of telling her as much, Kurt had let it slip that he had been applying to schools in the New York area.

"I thought you were doing design here sweetie." Carole didn't look disapproving, although Burt was frowning a bit, she simply looked curious.

"I was. I mean, I am. I love it, but in the long term, I think I might want to look into other things. I've been told that I have an eye for detail, but I've also been told that I do well in the business part. So I'm thinking of taking a few business classes, see if it's something I enjoy."

Burt shifted, turning his gaze to Kurt fully. It was just the four of them at the table, so Blaine was glad that he wasn't holding the brunt of Burt's gaze just then.

"You know that I'll stand behind you one hundred and twenty percent if it is something you want, but I need to know if you're doing this for you or for Blaine." He felt like he was intruding on a private conversation, but he wasn't sure how to leave the room without drawing attention to himself. Besides, he wasn't going to run from this. He needed to be there for Kurt, that's what relationships were about. And he cared about Kurt. He loved him.

"Part of it is because of Blaine, sure, but part of it is because I really want to do something that makes me happy. Dad, haven't you always said that I'm made for so much more than Lima? That you knew I'd make it out one day? Don't you think it's time?"

Burt and Carole exchanged a look, long enough that Blaine could only imagine it was a silent conversation, before Burt turned his eyes on Blaine.

"You better not hurt my son." Blaine smiled, reaching across the table to grab Kurt's hand and lacing their fingers together.

"I wouldn't dream of it. I love your son." Burt glanced over at Kurt, noticing that he wasn't shocked by the declaration, and seemed to approve.

The rest of the meal was in relative silence, with Burt and Blaine talking sports while Carole told Kurt about family matters. It was possibly the strangest dinner Blaine had ever been a part of, but it was an easy strangeness. Once everything was figured out, Burt seemed to relax around Blaine, asking questions about his family.

Of course Blaine and Kurt would never have a nice dinner like this at the Anderson household. Blaine's parents had come to terms with his sexuality in their own time, but they were still the people that were more okay with it in theory rather than practice. Not that it bothered Blaine, because they were never the overly caring sort, but he still would have liked to sit down at their table and see his parents look at him and Kurt the way that Carole and Burt were now.

There was still a lot that had to be done. Kurt would have to tell Burt and Carole that his apartment had blown up. He'd have to actually apply and get accepted to a school in New York. Blaine would have to call Wes and tell him where he'd disappear to. He might also look into a new apartment, one for just him and Kurt. Kurt couldn't move to New York until the summer anyways, so there was enough time for Wes to find another roommate, since Chuck was basically a ghost that paid his share of the rent.

What mattered was that they were going to get through it together.

* * *

><p>It had been a week in their brand new apartment together. Kurt had flown to New York at the beginning of summer to help look for one and once they found it, they knew. It was equal distance between their schools and jobs, it was low key, and it wasn't painfully priced. They'd coordinated over the phone and emails to get the furniture, each of them bringing what they could so they wouldn't have to buy all new things. Nothing matched, some things looked like they might break at any time, but Kurt and Blaine had looked around at the place like it was the best thing they'd ever seen.<p>

It was theirs, all theirs.

The first week had been strange, because they had to get used to living together in places other than run down motel rooms and safe houses. Blaine had a few routines, like working out in the living room in the morning, since that was the only place with enough room for him to do jumping jacks and push ups and sit ups. Kurt had a few health and beauty routines that took place mostly at night, and the first time Blaine saw him with the skin refining mask, he'd tried not to laugh in case it offended Kurt. It hadn't, but Kurt wasn't used to people seeing him like this, and it had been a bit of a joke between them for the first few days.

Blaine had to work later than usual on the seventh night, the first official week of them living together. He'd called Kurt to let him know, because it was polite and responsible and Blaine knew that Kurt still sometimes thought about the time Blaine had been kidnapped. He thought about texting when he was on his way home but it was late and Kurt might be asleep, so instead he just left the bar and headed home as quickly as possibly.

Kurt was on the couch when Blaine walked in, a book balanced on his knees while a series of muted infomercials played on the television. He smiled at his boyfriend, putting his keys and phone on the coffee table as he sat down, pressing his nose against Kurt's neck. He toed his shoes off, leaving them next to the sofa until he could get the energy to get up again.

"I should shower, I probably stink." Kurt shook his head, putting his bookmark between the pages and placing it on the table, leaning into Blaine's arms as he righted himself back up.

"Not at all. You just smell sweaty." Blaine laughed, having given up long ago trying to figure Kurt out.

"I am sweaty, and sticky, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to throw this shirt away because of how much alcohol is on it." He leaned back, pulling the hem of the offending shirt out to inspect it. The material was vastly darker along the bottom, grey turning almost black. With a smirk, Kurt took the hem of the shirt and started pulling it up, nudging Blaine's arms to stretch over his head to help.

"Well you should definitely take it off. And you should definitely take off those pants too. Just in case you spilled on them as well."

Blaine knew for a fact that he hadn't spilled on his pants, but he didn't stop Kurt from taking his pants off. He didn't help him either. He simply leaned back, tossing the shirt to the side, and watched as Kurt undid his buckle, not even bothering removing the belt, before working on the button and zipper. Blaine usually wore slightly tighter pants to the bar on some night because of the tips he got, but tonight thankfully hadn't been one of them.

Bracing himself on the back and the arm of the sofa, Blaine lifted his hips so that Kurt could pull off his pants. Once they were off, Kurt pulled Blaine's socks off and threw them in the general vicinity of his shoes. Kurt moved forward, lowering himself to cover Blaine's body with his own, pressing a series of quick kisses along his jaw to where his jaw line met his ear. He lightly bit Blaine's earlobe before pulling back just enough to be able to see into Blaine's eyes as he spoke next.

"I really need you to fuck me." Kurt's pupils were already dilated, his fingers contracting against his arms, and one look down showed just how much Kurt needed Blaine.

"Here or in the bedroom?" Even as Blaine asked, Kurt was leaning back to peel off his shirt and reach behind one of the decorative pillows on the couch for the condoms and lube that he had probably put there sometime before Blaine had come home.

"Impatient?" Kurt laughed, surging forward to finally capture Blaine's lips, who immediately wrapped his arms around Kurt's waist. There was no rush, no deadline, nothing waiting for them in a few hours. Blaine had the next day off and Kurt didn't have school or his work for another week.

"Motivated." The word was whispered against Blaine's lips. He reached down, thumbing the outline of Kurt's cock through the sweatpants, before hooking his fingers into the waistband and pulling them down. The angle was off, unable to get the pants off without some help from Kurt, who seemed wholly unable to tear his mouth away from Blaine's. As Blaine pulled away, doing his best to ignore the whine Kurt made as he tried to chase his lips, he was able to get Kurt to lift up enough to remove his pants and boxers fully.

"No fair, you're still wearing yours." Blaine rolled his eyes, letting Kurt take over in pulling off Blaine's boxers. Once they were discarded, Kurt repositioned himself back on top of Blaine, rolling his hips experimentally.

"Lube. Now. Now now now." Blaine nodded, fumbling on the couch for the lube and condoms, pulling them a little closer. He slicked two of his fingers before positioning them at Kurt's entrance, massaging lightly on the muscle.

This wasn't new to them; in the week they'd lived together they had christened almost every room and piece of furniture that could hold their weight. Blaine always took his time with Kurt, teasing him for as long as he could before neither of them could take it anymore, but not tonight. Tonight he could tell Kurt wouldn't take well to the teasing. Instead, he pushed his middle finger inside of Kurt, watching his face as his body registered the change. He bit his lip, shifting a bit before giving Blaine a small nod to continue.

Blaine twisted his finger, feeling around inside of him before sliding back out and adding the second one, opening and twisting his fingers to loosen him up. He felt around, knowing when he stroked over Kurt's prostate by the keening noise he made, his back arching. Their cocks were trapped between them, rubbing together with the flex of Kurt's hips, brushing Blaine's arm that was between them. Blaine bent forward to capture Kurt's mouth, coaxing his tongue into the other man's mouth, as he let his fingers frame the bundle of nerves and rub at the sides instead of directly on it.

It was to drive Kurt crazy, since there wasn't time for Blaine's usual teasing, and if Kurt could form a coherent sentence besides 'More, now, please', he would definitely tell Blaine off for the torture. He'd have to do that later. If he remembered.

He squeezed a little of the lube onto his third finger, working it inside of Kurt with a groan, feeling the muscles clamping down on his fingers. Utilizing one of Kurt's hands, because Blaine didn't want to pull his fingers out of Kurt just yet, he opened the condom. He was about to put it on himself, but Kurt swatted his hand away, sucking a bruise onto his jaw as he stroked Blaine a couple of times, harder at the top and softer at the bottom, before sliding the condom on.

He pressed a kiss to Kurt's shoulder, his throat, his jaw, and finally his lips as he pulled his fingers out and repositioned themselves, pulling Kurt down onto his cock slowly, feeling every inch enter him. Kurt's back arched again, no longer keeping the noises in, panting and gasping as he started to rise up and push down slowly.

Once Blaine was sure Kurt was adjusted, as he started to push down on Blaine's cock, he let himself thrust up hard. The noise they made in tandem told Blaine it was the right time and he continued to thrust with Kurt's movements, holding onto his hips and forcing him down harder. He would have liked to change positions, lay Kurt out and bend his legs up, but this was just as good. And if this is what Kurt wanted tonight, Blaine was happy to oblige.

He could feel his orgasm start, but he reached down to squeeze the base of his cock, wanting to hold off until Kurt was done. Kurt nodded, seeming to realize what Blaine was doing, and reached down to stroke his own cock. Blaine removed the hand from his cock to grasp Kurt's, wrapping his fingers over Kurt's to help him along.

As Kurt came, gasping and groaning and swearing, Blaine found his own release, grunting as he thrust up into Kurt one last time. He didn't immediately pull out, settling for wrapping his arms around Kurt's waist and press their lips together softly.

"I love you Kurt." He said it often, maybe not every day, but he meant it. He never expected Kurt to say it back, not since that first time, but he was always pleased whenever Kurt did.

"I love you too Blaine."

They needed to clean up, shower, and clean up again because there was no way they'd be able to shower together without an encore performance. However they didn't move, simply stayed snuggled together, waiting until they either got the energy to move or fell asleep.

Things weren't magically different, but they were better, and that's what mattered.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **C'est finis! I'm thankful to each and every one of you that have read, reviewed, favorited, or alerted this story. You cannot imagine how much it means to me.

The end of this story brings about something new for me. Although I've loved every minute of it, I have no intentions on writing another multi-chaptered story based off of it. Now I need to look into the next story I will write.

Thank you again. I cannot begin to explain how much it means to me, how much each of you mean to me. Thank you.


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